Mino Raiola’s controversial comments in December about it being high time for unhappy Paul Pogba to leave Manchester United for greener pastures have raised the question about the midfielder’s future at Old Trafford.
Former Manchester United star Jonny Giles has fired a salvo at Paul Pogba by claiming Jurgen Klopp would not even take the French midfielder on a free transfer.
Meritoriously it wouldn’t be at all unfair to say the 27-year-old has failed to justify the then-record transfer fee the Red Devils paid to bring him back to the club from Juventus in 2016 as he had then made the headlines more for his continuing struggles with inconsistency and injuries rather than for any achievements on the pitch.
Speaking to Off the Ball, Giles argued that, if given the chance to sign Pogba for Liverpool, Klopp would turn the deal down due to his inconsistency and the amount of controversy he generates off the pitch.
Giles said: “Manchester United, you could pick 11 players, and on the day, they could be brilliant, and then the next day, not so good.
“Then you also have the Pogba influence. I don’t want to keep going on about Pogba but it’s a fact. He’s still there, four years after he joined the club, and they’re still talking about ‘if he does this, will he do that and on his day’.
“That’s not good enough.
“I’ve said to people, in my opinion, if you said to Klopp that he could have Pogba for nothing, I don’t think he’d take him.”
He continued: “He’d say ‘I don’t need that guy’. He wouldn’t put up with the way Pogba’s behaved since he’s been there.
“Sometimes good, sometimes bad. He wouldn’t put up with that.
“You look at the Liverpool players and I think they’re terrified of Klopp.
“When Ferguson was at Manchester United, players were terrified of him and that’s the way you need it, as they know they won’t get away with anything.
“Pogba was only a young player when Fergie first got him out of the club.
“I’m not blaming Pogba for everything, he’s a very talented guy, but, in a club where you want to win things and have everyone working for you, I can’t see Ferguson putting up with him while he was there and I certainly couldn’t see Klopp putting up with him at all.”