Man United lost control of Pogba because they lack leaders – Paul Ince

Former Man United captain Paul Ince discusses the chaos surrounding Paul Pogba and why a lack of leaders in the dressing room has led to this situation

Paul Ince

I honestly thought we were done talking about Paul Pogba. I thought we’d got rid of him, but it’s never-ending.

It’s constant with him. I could understand the circus a little more if Pogba had even been playing, but he’s been injured, came off the bench and now he’s having an ankle operation.

I’ve always felt, from the moment that Jose Mourinho had a spat with him, that Pogba has wanted out. It’s felt as though there’s only one conclusion to all this speculation. He’s in the situation now where he needs to win the fans over – but I’m not sure he wants to do that and I’m not sure the fans even want him to. The fans have had enough of him, and of the situation.

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With Man United’s performances being so inconsistent, and with so much discussion around Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the last thing they need is all this speculation around Pogba. He needs to just come out and say where he’s at.

But instead, as we’ve seen, he hides behind Mino Raiola rather than saying it himself. In fact, even allowing his agent to come out and say all of the stuff he has is ridiculous. If that was my agent, and he came out saying the things he has – I’d get rid of him immediately.

That Pogba hasn’t come out and said anything about Raiola’s behaviour suggests to me that he knew exactly what he was going to say and is fine with it. I don’t understand why you’d want to command a move when you’re injured, but to then come out and blame the structure of the club and how it’s run on why you want to leave – that’s unfair on the club.

You want to leave because you don’t want to be there, simple as that.

Pogba isn’t excited by being the talisman of the team, so let him go. It’s clear he regrets returning to Old Trafford

The fact is, though, when Pogba plays and he plays well there’s no way Ole would drop him. Really, he should be the talisman of that team.

He should be enthused and excited by the fact that the team could be built around him and he could be the main man, but he doesn’t seem interested in that to me. He’s not bothered about being the captain of Man United. It doesn’t excite him to be the leader of this club.

It feels as though we all bought into the romance of him returning to Man United. But it’s never really happened for him, has it?

It’s not gone the way either he or the club wanted it to go. I would say he regrets making the move, now.

You can sense that he wishes he’d gone somewhere else, so just let him go. The Return of the Prodigal Son stuff never quite worked out – but people would have more respect for him if he just came out and said that it hasn’t played out how he wanted it to.

There are no leaders in the Man United dressing room to talk to Paul Pogba

You can’t have the players, fans, manager all wondering what it is you want. If Paul Pogba was in my changing room with the likes of me, Roy Keane, Steve Bruce and Bryan Robson, all of this

wouldn’t be happening. The situation has got out of control, but back then he would not have gotten away with it.

It’d be a case of get yourself fit, get back playing well, and move on. The fact of the matter is there aren’t enough leaders at the club in the changing room, and Pogba is doing he wants.

There aren’t enough leaders or big characters at the club to tell him to just knuckle down and get a grip, so he feels like he has free rein to do whatever he wants.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

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No one comes out and tells him otherwise, because no one has control of the dressing room. There’s normally a group of players like that at a club, but I just can’t see that at Man United.

Ole has said he’s waiting for Pogba to come in and talk to him, even. But it shouldn’t be like that, it should be Ole dragging him in and asking him what exactly he sees for his future of the club. As a manager, he should be asking him what’s going on and what his issue is.

You’re telling me Fergie would’ve dealt with it this way? No chance – he’d have pulled Pogba in and then decided whether he wanted to then pass that message on to fans and media.

Where it’s really frustrating is we’ve heard this story about Pogba wanting to leave several times now, but yet here he still is. Unless someone’s going to come in for him at the price United want, for someone who’s still injured, he’s still going to be there at the end of the month. It’s a vicious circle.

I’m not convinced he’s going anywhere in January. He wants to, yes, but realistically I don’t know who’s going to have him.

At the moment though, it feels like it’s all about Paul Pogba. And Man United have never, and should never, be about just one person. It’s about being a team – not what Paul Pogba wants now.

Jesse Lingard teaming up with Raiola shows he wants to leave – but he needs to improve his performances before thinking about a move

The relationship between Mino Raiola and United is obviously bad. We’ve all seen what he said. But he’s just adding fuel to the fire unnecessarily. If you’re an agent and your player wants to go you can do that without having to hit the back pages.

If you don’t feel the club is going forward the way you like – fine – but there’s no need to play that out publicly. You can do it without anyone knowing. The thing is, if Pogba’s there next month, it’s going to be a huge task for him to win the fans over now.

Then you see that Jesse Lingard has signed with that agent, too. I mean, he must be feeling optimistic if he thinks that Raiola could secure him a move to Real Madrid or Juventus!

He’s a massive so-called super-agent. I’m not sure why Jesse has signed with him to be honest.

Obviously by getting involved with him he must think that he can secure a move in the next year or so, and he’s the man to do it. But Jesse’s not a kid anymore, and ultimately, he needs to improve his performances on the pitch before he can worry about his next move.

He’s supposed to be in his prime, but some of his performances are terrible. There’s too much competition for him to be playing every week.

He clearly thinks that Raiola is the man to secure him the move away from Old Trafford.

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