Paul Pogba has been accused of failing to deliver on his exorbitant price tag ahead of his Manchester United departure, proving Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to let the French star leave a decade ago was the right one.
Pogba was signed for a club-record £89million fee from Juventus back in 2016 while Jose Mourinho was in charge, but the Frenchman has largely failed to consistently produce the performances expected of him. He won only two trophies in his time at the club, with his last success coming in 2016-17 with the Europa League.
The club confirmed on Wednesday that the 29-year-old will depart for a second time on a free transfer after running down his contract and looks set to rejoin Juve or head to Paris Saint-Germain — a decade after refusing to renew his deal in 2012 when Ferguson was in charge.
The Scot was unimpressed with the Frenchman's actions on his way out of Old Trafford — and former Arsenal man Ray Parlour believes the legendary boss was on the money with his judgment.
“You go back to Sir Alex Ferguson when he let him go, he wasn’t his sort of player – there’s a reason why he let him go,” the Gunners legend told talkSPORT. “Sir Alex Ferguson must have looked at him and said his dedication isn’t right or something’s wrong, that’s why he let him go.
“He’s come back to the club and maybe he’s still the same. Sometimes you don’t change. Sometimes I’ve seen Pogba play and I’m thinking, ‘come on, liven up a bit’, you know? As a player you’ve got to perform every week, you’ve got to put the effort in every week, and you haven’t seen that from Pogba in a Manchester United shirt. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out as a player, it’s a lot of money to spend, he was a big signing for Man United.”
Pogba scored only 39 goals in 231 games for the club and his final season at the club has been plagued by injury, with the central midfielder making only 20 appearances in total. Some would point to the fact Pogba won the World Cup during his second stint at United as proof of his ability to be one of the best in the world on his day, but those displays were far and few between for United.
But former footballer Dean Saunders agreed with Parlour that Pogba has largely failed to live up to the hype and even suggested that he was made to look better because of N’Golo Kante’s work during Les Bleus’ 2018 triumph.
“When he’s had to stand up to the plate and produce the goods – bearing in mind he’s got a £90million price tag on his back and he thinks he’s going to produce magic passes every game – he just gives the ball away too much,” Saunders said. "I just think back, is it Kante? Does Kante make everyone he plays with look good? As soon as they leave Kante, they look bang average and maybe they thought he was better than he was.
