The midfielder’s relationship with manager Jose Mourinho has been under intense scrutiny ever since the summer, with the drama growing last week. After the Frenchman gave an interview in the aftermath of United’s 1-1 home draw against Wolves on September 22 in which he lobbed thinly-veiled criticisms of Mourinho’s tactics, the manager stripped Pogba of the vice-captaincy.
It later emerged that Mourinho had told Pogba off for his role in Wolves’ equaliser, in which he gave away the ball. Both that incident and Pogba’s comments to the media likely contributed to the manager’s decision to take away the vice-captaincy from a player who has skippered United three times this season.
The player was then withdrawn in the second half of Saturday’s defeat, despite United chasing the game, and Pogba ignored Mourinho on his way to the bench.
Following the loss, members of the media tried getting the 25-year-old’s attention, only for Pogba to shoo them away, saying, “You want me dead?”
Both his future at the club, and that of Mourinho, are in doubt, with many saying Pogba, who developed in United’s academy but left for Juventus in 2012 before returning in a then-world-record transfer in 2016, is trying to engineer another move, potentially to Barcelona.
Meanwhile, the poor start to the season, in which United have lost three Premier League games from seven – their worst start to a league campaign in 29 years – and were dumped out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by Championship side Derby County last week, has led to increasing speculation that Mourinho is on the brink of getting the sack.
