Ignore the blah, blah, blah - the Paul Pogba thread

United confident about Pogba staying beyond this summer?

https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-...mistic-of-keeping-pogba-beyond-summer-sources

Judging by the rumors of what interested parties were ready to offer (whether it's Juve or Real), it's no surprise that Pogba essentially appears to be priced out of any move (even more so now, because of the current circumstances).
Would be a huge reprieve for the club and the hope is that they will not mess this opportunity up. All Pogs ever wanted is to be in a team that could genuinely compete for major trophies. Our repeated failure to do so is the main reason he wanted to leave in the first place.
If the club stays the course with their intent to seriously tool up this summer, it's not out of bounds that we could have a team as soon as next season that is as close as it's been since SAF stepped down. And it's possible we could even see Pogba putting pen to paper on a new deal also.
We'll see how things ultimately shape out, but Pogba staying would already be a surprise (a very welcome one though), with the possibilities going into next term simply mouthwatering.

 

As long as he knows it is Bruno's team, I guess he can stay.

 

When you can't go to the barber anymore...

Pogba has joined Martial in becoming bald 😂✂️ #MUFC pic.twitter.com/64vdchMEMK

— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) March 25, 2020

 

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/soc...nst-graeme-souness/1ld2ad0rqodnt1p0igrs1dlhbj

Yeah right... Aware that Souness was a quality player in his day and I'd legitimately be curious to see how those 2 matchup (just as I would with other greats from previous generations).
But when it's all said and done, I'm confident that Pogs would have him tied up in a knot. Goes on to praise his technical and physical abilities, yet still blasts him? Those qualities are the precise reasons Pogba would absolutely hold his own against him: he's deceptively strong, has great control of his body and is extremely technical to boot. The only way Souness would be able to stop him is to get all dirty and hack him down at every opportunity.
Questioning his consistency is fair game to a certain extent but it's amazing how he always goes overboard when it comes to Pogba, like it's personal almost. Not too hard to see why either: take your pick, I suppose. Bottom line though, Souness can go to hell: real sad that someone with an obvious agenda as he does is still given a platform in this day and age...

 

Translation: I really couldn't care less about him.

 

Fck Graeme Souness. Lucked out as a dirty player on a great club team, shitty manager and a general asshole as a pundit.

 

Critics seem to have forgotten how good Pogba is - Bruno

https://www.skysports.com/football/...andes-defends-man-united-team-mate-paul-pogba

Not hard at all to imagine he's must be looking forward to the opportunity of playing with Pogs.

 

He's also a moron. Telling a world cup winner to "put their medals on the table."

They're all so insular it's embarrassing. Why should someone from France born after Souness retired be expected to know, or care, who he is.

 

Souness also didn't have nearly as many as Pogba at the same age.

Plus, and this is the bit that nobody will ever talk about to the faces of these older generations of player - the amount of work modern professionals put into their game compared to players of 30, 40, 50 years ago, simply cannot be compared. It's all relative and you can only 'fairly' judge players against their peers. But if you look at a week's work for a player like Pogba compared to what Souness was doing, I guarantee that Pogba is several times over the professional that Souness was.

Pogba doesn't eat shit food, he doesn't drink, he has no fat on his body, he doesn't smoke, he is working every single muscle in his ********ing body in the gym, his technical ability is leaps and bounds above any Liverpool player of the era because of work he has put in. The amount of tactical knowledge any midfielder, even Pogba, has to carry into a match compared to the days of Souness is off the scale - it's a completely different game. It wouldn't matter if you were carrying an injury in Souness' day because you weren't operating at anywhere near peak physical capacity.

I would love an analyst to watch footage from the days of Souness and approximate how much ground he covered, at what speed etc. If I was Pogba I would have somebody do just this, without letting on it was me asking for it.

I'm not saying that players of the 70's, 80's etc couldn't be elite players if they emerged today - I think Maradona would be the equal of Ronaldo and Messi if he had grown up through the same academies, with the same training regimes etc. Cruyff would be phenomenal. Hoddle was very similar to Pogba in a lot of ways, and he was managing that in a country that was tactically extremely backward.

But what I'm saying is that modern footballers are so much more professional, in so many ways more sheltered from being typical boys/men, and operate at much higher level in almost all areas, on pitches that are utterly perfect with footballs that are a fraction of the weight. You can't just pass to the keeper every time you're under a bit of pressure, you can't just get anyone offside to kill a move, you can't just sever someone's leg if they do something a bit clever. It's such a different game. If you put 27 year old Souness onto the pitch today, he would look like a competition winner for the 10 minutes before he got sent off for being a 'man'. No amount of waving his Division 2 winner's medal with Middlesbrough or his Charity Shield winner's medals will change that.

 

He’s been pretty visible on the official United platforms lately. Makes me wonder if a new contract is coming.

 

If that were the case, there would be leaks.

Honestly I think the bridges are burnt at this point. Maybe he pulls a DDG and runs out of options and stays by default, but I just don't see it.

 

There were leaks a month or so ago about a U turn. Cant speak to the credibility

 

Why do they have to get rid of Pogba to bring someone in with the “Keane factor?” If you can find someone like that, why not bring them in to play with Pogba?

It’s just so tired at this point.

 

White people.

Why does nobody point out to people like Sheringham, Souness et al, what Roy Keane used to do when he was in a team that wasn't elite? How did he raise the game of the 2005/6 squad, who became elite in his absence the following year, by only signing notorious hard man Michael Carrick? How did he get on with Ireland in South Korea? What about as a manager, did he rouse Ipswich and Sunderland into top level performance cultures?

It's such an easy answer to give that it isn't taxing even for the laziest ex-footballer. It's lad mantra.

https://thebusbybabe.sbnation.com/2...a-down-tools-for-manchester-united-in-2018-19

 

Pogba gets pyscho-analyzed more than any United player I can remember. It's like people need to find a reason to justify him not living up to the hype. Why can't it just be that he's played really well but he hasn't had the supporting cast to be as successful. And he's not the caliber of player that can put a mediocre team on his back and carry them.

I have my issues with Pogba, both his play and his failure to reign in that fat cnut Raiola, but the constant criticism of him even when he hasn't played in 8 months is ridiculous.

 

Darren Bent dropping some red pills here. Preach!

“It’s kind of a witch hunt now. Everyone’s taking shots at him.”

“People have got to get off his back. Let him play!”

"I hope when he comes back a lot of these players won't hide behind him.”@DarrenBent defends #MUFC midfielder Paul Pogba from critics 🔴

Thoughts? 💭 pic.twitter.com/5amny2j6Fw

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) May 27, 2020

 

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...with-manchester-united-may-get-unlikely-spark

CV-19 and its consequences on the football definitely were a factor in Pogba looking pretty likely to remain at the club beyond the summer. But just as important is the how the team has progressed in the last year.
All our incoming players have contributed and improved the team in one way or another. While some players who were already there have come into their own and contributed significantly as well.
The work is not done of course, but this group is starting to look like a proper team. And with a couple of tweaks, one that could finally be in contention for the top honors. At the end of the day, after seeing the club fail him consistently in that area (safe for his first season) that is all that Pogs wants. Hopefully, it will be enough to see want to spend his prime at United.

 

I masturbated to this video today. I miss footy.