Paul Pogba: The Old Lady’s new darling – Did Fergie make a mistake by letting him go?
Paul Pogba poses with his new club’s shirt after being transferred from Manchester United to Juventus.
Sir Alex Ferguson is not usually one who is linked with major mistakes, but letting Paul Pogba leave for Juventus might just be one of them. The former Scotland and Manchester United defender Gordon McQueen said there was only one way for a footballer to go after leaving Old Trafford: down. He was speaking from experience and many more players would even agree with him, but that’s not always the case. Ronaldo and Pique certainly haven’t taken a step down since leaving the Red Devils and now Pogba is convinced that he has made the right decision by joining the Old Lady’s ranks.
Ferguson was not pleased and accused Pogba of not showing United respect when he refused to sign a contract earlier this year – said to be for £20,000 a week, the biggest offered to a United reserve team player. Ferguson had promised first team action to Pogba but he made only seven first team appearances in two seasons for the United first team, which was never going to be enough for a player of Pogba’s talent and he was inclined towards a move where he could get more first team action. Pogba has found regular first team football at Juventus who promised and have delivered what Ferguson could not – regular starts even in a star-studded midfield comprising of Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal and Kwadwo Asamoah. Until now, Pogba has made seventeen league appearances mostly because of injuries to Pirlo/Vidal/Marchisio for Antonio Conte’s team and scored four humdingers in the process for the Turin giants.
In a short space of time, Pogba has convinced everyone. He is equally comfortable in defence and attack. For a man of his stature, he possesses great ball control and has supreme confidence in his ability. He can control the midfield and has the ability to select the right passes at the right time. There are a few weaknesses in his game, and although some United supporters would highlight his bad positional sense, his exceptional skills on the ball make up for that. Had he not left United, he would have been the Red Devils’ perfect answer to a certain Yaya Toure.
Juventus’ Paul Pogba fires a shot and scores during a Serie A match between Juventus and Udinese at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy.
His best match was against Udinese earlier this year where he had the game in his pocket. He waltzed through a distraught Udinese midfield in such a way that they never posed a threat. The fantastic vision, strength, composure, positioning and passing which he used to display for the United reserves were now being effortlessly reciprocated on Italy’s biggest stage. Add to that two bullet goals with his magic right foot and no one could argue that he didn’t deserve a first team place.
Antonio Conte needs to find a place for Pogba in the first team. As proven by leaving United, Pogba wants first team action and may as well leave Juve if he doesn’t get it and Conte wouldn’t want to repeat Ferguson’s mistake. Because of Pogba’s growing reputation, he somehow has to fit four players into his star studded midfield trio which has revived Juve. After Giuseppe Rossi and Gerard Pique left Old Trafford for Villarreal and Barcelona respectively, Pogba certainly gives the impression of being another star that United fans will, unfortunately, see shine elsewhere but he still has a long way to go in terms of proving himself. He needs to be consistent, tone down his temper a bit before he can be called a great. Nowadays, it only takes a few good displays for the accolades to flow and doesn’t take much time either for a player to be overrated. The jury on Pogba will be out for a while.
La Gazetta Dello Sport once asked: – “Will Ferguson curse not having kept Pogba at Manchester?”
Most probably, yes.