This sums it up.
Paul Pogba - Free Agent | ban reduced - able to play competitively from March 2025
- Thread starter charlenefan
- Start date
The guy who called 300k a week 'nothing'
The burden of proof is not on the accusers in cases like this. The burden is on the player to make sure that nothing they eat or drink contains banned substances.
COmpletely agree on the first paragraph, the other two players, personally always thought Lingard was over rated though he was held in high regard as a youth, thought his movement was fantastic the rest was just decent personally and Morrison I think was his lifestyle off the pitch, the frist two you could say the lifestyle on the pitch was wrong too.
Funny you compare him to Toure as a few post comparing him to ZIdane ability wise which I think is nonsense personally....the one thing he did have of Zidanes was the physicality, as I remember Roy Keane saying before and people often forget about ZIdane, the guy was naturally built and strong as an ox, hard enough to knock off the ball physically let alone his wonderful touch, balance etc etc, Pogba was talented but he was never anywhere near Sidane ability wise
The sad thing is minus the injury part you mention, which I dont agree with personally anyway, Pogba is maybe the biggest culprit, but could edit your post and change to so so many of our talented players over the last decade. All the wqy back to DiMaria, Martial, Lukaku being obvious examples. I wont even name some others and players we have bought through the academy that I feel the same about but its a tough read looking through our transfer history and players brougth through over the last decade as it isnt just all poor signings and flops, so many of the more talented players have been here for me have been massively over hyped considering they have probably only been immense 15-20 times over a few seasons like Pogba.
The lack of consistency over several seasons under several managers by the vast majority of our players even talented ones is pretty shocking really
Sounds like a nice and well liked guy by all accounts, he's just not a serious footballer and has relied on his natural talent forever, now that his body has broken down he's nowhere near what he was 4/5 years ago.
Ability and natural talent only get you so far. In someone like Zidane those traits we mention made him as good as he was. They elevated him to be great. Pogba didn’t have those attributes so he never got close to zidane.. but imagine him as a mentality monster with drive and focus, the desire to be the greatest. He genuinely could have been a force to be reckoned with. It’s easy to say though I guess. There’s a few players I can think of that wasted as much talent as him, despite having a very good career with a World Cup to boot, he could have done way way more.
imagine neymar didn’t sell out with psg and had messi/Ronaldo level application, he could of genuinely of been as good as them.. but he didn’t, so he wasn’t. It’s all easy to say in hindsight I guess.
Bluffer
Yeah the Zidane comparison is crazy. He was skilled for a guy with his size but Zidane was on another level skill wise and consistency especially in big games. He was faster than Zidane and that's really it.
What more is there to say about the man? He had all the skills but at some point in his life his head was fekked. Yes, he can forever hold his head high with club and national team cups in his hand but the moment he came back to United he was a mess.
I agree he had the tools and physical attributes to be a fantastic player, just find the comparisons ability wise to Zidane nuts.
Even sasying that though, all the talk of his lack of application and mentality eyc holding him back from being such a great player.....it wasnt just that, he did lack football intelligence reading the game and positioning wise, despite playing under some great defensive managers. So I would dispute it was only mentality stopped him being such a great as the likes of Keane and Viera for example both had that, wasnt just there fantastic mentality, they were both intelligent and technically sound players. Pogba didnt "have it all" in terms of ability as some say for me, he was lacking in that area which added to the other issues and compounded that weakness in his game
The guy retired while he was playing for us, I must have missed the comeback...
A sad end to what should have been a stellar career. Pogba has no interest in football or playing within a team structure.
We can buy him back much cheaper this time i reckon
Athletes aged 30+ recovering from injuries probably have the most to gain from using PEDs. It helps them regain fitness faster and to a higher level.
The most overrated purchase in all my time of watching United, particularly if you factor in the number of years we wasted trying to build a team around him, in addition to crippling our transfer strategy with his humongous fee and ridiculous wages, relative to his performances.
Doping is a really expensive hobby.
Not the first time of saying it, glad he stopped being our problem a long time ago.
We tried to build around him? He needs someone next to him to do the defensive stuff and we only got Casemiro after Pogba left. I dont think Matic was bought to compliment Pogba but more because Mourinho always buys Matic. Also dont think Matic is the type of player you want next to Pogba.
I still think he was good in his earlier Manchester United years. He dropped off a bit later and then when the injuries started to become a major problem it was over.
We've done a lot of things wrong in the past years but letting Pogba go wasnt one of them. Im glad he's somebody elses problem.
I agree. Pogba lost his way, simple as that. Too much praise, endorsement, and too little humility. He could have gone the Messi, Modric, CR7 (aside from post-Juve career..) route, just keep his head down and show the world how brilliant and consistent you are. Wasted a generational gift of talent, and that's such a shame.
Paul Pogba could have been the best footballer of his generation. No doubt about that. When focused, he made the game look easy, against any opposition for either club or country. And young people, aspiring young players simply adored him. A sponsors dream.
He strolled through that 2018 WC with France, couldn't touch him. He scored 22 in a season when we were rubbish, he was distracted with questionable attitude, Mourinho blaming him for everything, and surrounded by Lukaku and Lindgard.
A shame.
Was my favorite player to watch for a while. Capable of almost anything, but was always looking for a way out of here and alienated the fans in the process. Such a stupid person really, being such a mercurial player but being able to p*ss off the fans of the club you spent a decade at.
The club treated him like a king and bent over for him all his time here, and still tried to keep him at the end. for him to be still insulted by it. Absolutely mental what this club has become
Potential 4 year ban if found guilty. Football career surely over
I said it at the time bit he came back for the start of season(can't remember now exsctly which one) and his physique had changed. The lanky, lean build had gone and he was now bulky.
Was never the same player and I think that's where the injury issues started.
Take a look at photos of his last season at Juve compared to his last season with us. Very different.
Was never the same player and I think that's where the injury issues started.
Take a look at photos of his last season at Juve compared to his last season with us. Very different.
I don’t think saying Pogba had ability similar to Zidane is that crazy. He obviously didn’t make anywhere near the same impact from it but on our ability he’s in the top 5 Utd players I’ve ever seen. Some of the stuff he could do with the ball was genuinely insane.
I think we wanted to keep him but he decided to leave.
I doubt that will happen. Onana his max suspension when he was a Ajax player was also 4 years. Onana eventually got a 12 months suspension which was reduced to 9 months. Pogba and Juventus laywers will claim it was an accident and that he never took anything before. No way he will get a 4 year ban.
I think they are very different players with very different skill sets.
For ability I wouldn't put him in the top 5 players.
Then we got lucky he was more stupid than us.
No player gets the full 4 years normally they get one year as they all argue it was an accident, the doctor messed up or something.
Still after not playing due to injury for a whole year plus another one due to suspension is going to be really hard for him to get back to top level performances. I don't know if Juventus can rescind the contract due to doping issues or not but after rumours of them willing to let Pogba leave for free I don't think they'll keep him.
You know who ruined his career? his agent. Wrong agent for the wrong person.
The latest is that he took a supplement in Miami advised by a doctor friend of his without knowing what it contained. Its unfortunate.
He will get a reduced ban if his lawyers can prove it was not intentional but its clear he didnt take it knowingly or that it was a set up by the club as I predicted.
Pogba still has to take some responsibility, Raiola had other clients and they still had a good career.
That said, the sport is much better of without Raiola.
This.
Indeed that's why he's the wrong agent for him. Pogba was a puppet to Raiola for his big transfer commission fees. Other players who weren't affected didn't have as much interest in public image as Pogba, or were actually mature adults who could control their own career path. Zlatan was having none of Raiola's bullshit, he only played along if he didn't have a future at the club anymore.
Shit bag.
It's pretty crazy. If he had the ability of Zidane he wouldn't have large swathes of a career where he was completely ineffectual. I don't think the team awards cover over that. He has had many seasons of below par performance for somebody that was supposed to be a world class footballer.
He was talented, definitely, but not to the extent where some make out as if the only thing that stopped him being a colossus was somehow a combination of his own head, or bad luck or the teams fault. Ultimately he lacked so many aspects of midfield play, and that's part of talent.
Pogba always reminds me of the player who jogs around the field with little urgency. Doesn't do the hard work of running back to defend when needed. This is probably the most frustrating part of his play. He was good at initiating attacks with his long splitting passes, but that is just not enough nowadays.