Pogba, United and the Pseudo ‘healthy’ relationship between Players, Club and Fans at Old Trafford

As Manchester United laboriously waddled through their routine pre-season tour of the United States, a distinct sense of disenchantment coupled with few rumblings of mutiny amongst those in the dressing room helped engrain a general feeling of depression which consumed the majority of the fan base in anticipation for, what is usually, a highly anticipated Premier League campaign.

Something about what Jose Mourinho was doing was strange. He was sabotaging any chance he had of future success at United, and in doing so creating an ever expanding void between himself and the fan base, so crucial to the success of any manager. Mourinho did have merits in doing this, and he was clearly not being given the tools to create his ideal United side, but it is a very complex and two-sided issue. Both sides are due blame at their doorstep, but the United boards inability to back Mourinho and his two immediate predecessors (as well as Ferguson to an extent) is perhaps the root of all issues the club has faced of late.

United’s season has been one of little excitement or hope from the conclusion of the FA Cup Final in May, where hints at an incompetence in the transfer market began to reappear and the same old mediocre characters stayed in the starting squad, plaguing the side with mistake after mistake. In addition, the relationships between manager, fans and players began to deteriorate.

However, bigger, more immediately distressing issues for United fans began to manifest themselves as Mourinho’s relationship with big characters in a commercial and footballing sense began to deteriorate. After having a visually heated encounter with Paul Pogba in January of 2018 at Wembley, Mourinho and Pogba clashed heads once more in a training ground bust up, caught on camera by Sky Sports. The backlash was almost solely directed at Mourinho, but upon reflection it poses an interesting question about player power and the influence of football’s highest earning players. Pogba has a sound relationship with many of the 659 million United fans across the globe. His commercial appeal, and the things he represents in terms of the United brand in a footballing sense are priceless, but he has been an ever growing issue and the prospect of his departure at the end of the season is becoming more and more realistic.

Pogba has been a divisive figure since his return in 2016, and he has done little to calm the circus around his name and actions. In last seasons history defining Manchester Derby, the midfielder showed up with blue hair for the game - just days after Pep Guardiola had claimed to have been offered Pogba just three months prior. Not doing anything to dispel the comments or put them to bed, Pogba was saved by an immense performance and a two goal haul in the second half come back. He shushed the crowd and City fans at the end, and never spoke to it again. Many ignored it, but it is instances like these where Pogba prevents himself from being endeared to a vast amount of United fans. He constantly produces inflammatory comments and flirts with other clubs whilst on international duty, free from the constraints of United’s press team. No more clearly evident is this than in the last international break where he flirted with Zidane, Real Madrid and the prospect of leaving United. Zidane reciprocated. Who is to say that Zidane has not said to Pogba, due to Madrid’s financial constraints, that the Spanish club would come back for him next year after securing Eden Hazard in this window coming? Is that healthy for a player who ideally a side will be built around, as Solskjaer has said when speaking about the midfielder?

There is an inherent issue with United, contract negotiations, and Ed Woodward and this is strongly linked with Pogba’s recent flirtation with Real Madrid. At the end of the day, when Alexis Sanchez joined from Arsenal, United’s wage structure was destroyed. The Chileans earnings make up the best part of some 400,000 pounds a week and this has imbalanced all of United’s top earners, including Paul Pogba and David De Gea, for whom a new contract is required with his current deal expiring at the end of next season. De Gea wants upward of 380,000 pounds a week and United are unwilling to pay up and risk losing him on a free in 2020 or having to sell him at a cut price this summer. With Pogba, United should have offered a new contract to him after his World Cup triumph. With two and a half years remaining on his current deal, the Frenchman is still relatively locked in, but his comparatively low wages relative to Sanchez create a sense of discontent for the Frenchman, and this is in part why these comments continue to come out. Woodward should have offered Pogba a new 2 year extension in the summer with an increased wage packet. Not only would this settle the player and make him feel valued, but it would put United in complete control, something they rarely find themselves in with regards to player negotiations. It speaks to a stunning lack of competence shown by United in relation to contract renewals, and the fact that midfield lynchpin Ander Herrera could move to PSG on a free in a few weeks is shocking. It is an unnecessary loss which compounds the size of the rebuild which the majority of United fans have no faith in Woodward to be able to complete.

The neglect to sign talents like the adored Spanish enforcer Ander Herrera on new contracts and to keep Pogba happy is made infinitely worse by United’s rewarding of mediocrity. The fact that Ashley Young, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have all signed long term deals in recent months speaks to how eager the club are to save a buck and displays their incompetence in moving ‘deadwood’ on. It is truly baffling. The relationship and connection between fans and club on the re-signing of these three players is particularly lost in the sense that these three in particular do not have healthy relationships with the fan base, but the club refuse to acknowledge their ineptitude and ineffectiveness as top level footballers at what is meant to be the biggest club on the planet.

It always comes back to those in the upper echelons of the clubs hierarchy. Successive manager mishaps, player recruitment issues and the lack of a strong football structure have been huge issues in the last ten years, and Woodward has gotten off incredibly lightly with the blame largely being placed at his selection of managers feet. At some point he must be criticised and must find his position in jeopardy.

Yes, Mourinho had to go. He had brought his time to an end. But it is clearly not a solely Mourinho centric issue. Woodward and co pushed it to a juncture where it was unfathomable for the Portuguese to stay at the club without the loss of hugely influential young players like Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and the countless other large names he had cast aside as his time at the club became more toxic - it was the financially irresponsible option and United place huge emphasis on the books. No doubt the appointment of Solskjaer represented a cheap and facile alternative to the long chase that would have been required to prise Mauricio Pochettino from Spurs or the huge expanses of cash that would have to be poured in to the now freshly re-appointed Real Madrid manager Zidane, which is certainly something else to consider. The question has to arise - did the Glazers simply get lucky in appointing Ole or does it speak to a degree of competence evidenced in a recognition, and later action, on the fact that the mood around the club needed to be lightened? With a manager who displays such qualities as Solskjaer did they hypothesise that he could develop a set of results which would render him the only feasible candidate for the world’s biggest job in football? It seems highly unlikely - Solskjaer was not even on the 15 man list produced by bookmakers after Mourinho’s high profile dismissal in December.

The worry now is that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, an effervescent symbol of superlative United teams gone by, has been put in place to appease fans and not with a view to an inherent restructure of the club to improve the relationship between fans, players and the club itself. Is the Norwegian a marketing ploy or a masterstroke by the clubs decision makers? With no doubt there are deep rooted issues in every facet of the club, Solskjaer has a mountain to climb. Will he keep Pogba? Will De Gea not seek greener pastures? Will Woodward pay up? Will the squad finally get the opportunity to be cleared thoroughly, (as few doubt it needs) rebuilt and reshaped? In any case, Ole is at the wheel. If he steers United to reclaim their former glories, despite the countless issues in the background, is another issue in itself.

Jamie Rybinski

The Football Supplement

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