"What was the culture, anyway?" - Jesse Lingard hits back at accusations of destroying Manchester United's culture with Paul Pogba
Former Manchester United forward Jesse Lingard has responded to claims that he and Paul Pogba were ruining the culture at the club during their time at Old Trafford. Lingard stated that he and Pogba only tried to make the culture better.
The Englishman went on to question such claims and added that United were winning games at the time. In a recent interview, Lingard responded to the claims of those who opined that the duo ruined the culture at Manchester United. He said (via Daily Mail):
"I love Paul to bits. He's one of my best friends. We speak every day. But I was thinking: 'What was the culture, anyway?' With us being in the first team, you know, it's obviously knowing the right place, the right time to do things and stuff like that. But ruining culture? We only tried to make it stronger. We responded to success and we smiled and laughed and we were winning games. So that is good culture, yeah?"
Pogba and Lingard were good friends and they were quite familiar for expressing their happiness and that of their close teammates. The pair were also fond of dancing and practicing goal celebrations on social media.
This led to questions regarding their seriousness as United's first-team players. A cross-section of the supporters felt that the pair were doing too much online instead of focusing on their team. The pair were also criticized by several pundits for their presence online following poor results.
When Paul Pogba responded to claims that he and Jesse Lingard were dancing after Manchester United lost a game
In October 2024, Pogba claimed that accusations of himself and Lingard dancing after a Manchester United loss were untrue. Pogba added that if a witness could state otherwise, he would apologize.
In an interview with Sky Sports, the Frenchman debunked such claims and said (via talkSPORT):
“I want to clarify something because I’ve been hearing stuff that Wayne Rooney once said we lost a game and me and Jesse [Lingard] were dancing in the changing room."
He added:
“We always need another opinion, a witness on this, ok. So if somebody can confirm what Wayne Rooney said when we were in the changing room, I will accept it, but if there is not, it means it’s not true."
During his time at Manchester United, Pogba was known for his vision in midfield. In 233 games, he bagged 39 goals and 48 assists for the Red Devils. Meanwhile, Lingard scored 35 goals and 20 assists in 232 games as a first-team player for United.