Jose Mourinho explains key moment which derailed Paul Pogba’s Manchester United career

Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has discussed Paul Pogba’s career, including his time at Old Trafford and beyond.

Pogba, a product of United’s youth system would leave the club to move to Juventus back in 2012, a move which disappointed then manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Four years later, Pogba would return to the club. Arriving in the summer of 2016 as the marquee signing of Mourinho’s first window as Manchester United boss, it appeared both Mourinho and Pogba would be destined for greatness together.

In their first season, the pair would see United lift the Community Shield, League Cup, as well as the Europa League. Yet, despite such a promising start, neither manager nor player would lift another trophy during their time in Manchester.

With their relationship publicly and privately falling apart, it became a matter of time before one of the pair would be forced to leave the club.

Eventually, after a poor start to the 2018/19 season, it was Mourinho who was removed from his position. The manager was sacked by the club with the Red Devils closer to the relegation zone than they were to league leaders Liverpool.

Moments after that sacking Pogba would infamously make a disrespectful social media post, seemingly mocking his former manager’s dismissal.

Discussing Pogba’s time at the club, Mourinho admitted that he felt the then France international no longer saw football as the most important thing in his life.

“The only thing I say is that it happens with almost everybody in some moments of your career: you lose a little bit [of] the sense of who you are and what you have to be,” Mourinho explained to the Telegraph.

“The season after France won the [2018] World Cup, I think Paul came back different. The World Cup brought him into a dimension where football was not the most important thing for him. Sharing the philosophy of everyone; everyone with the same level of responsibilities.”

Since his time playing under Mourinho, Pogba’s career has continued to move in an almost exclusively downward trajectory.

Pogba struggled under Mourinho’s successors Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick. Under the former, Pogba had moments of brilliance, particularly when moved to the left side of the attack.

But as injuries continued to mount, as well as a general stance of discontent whilst at Old Trafford, it became more and more apparent that Pogba’s career at United was an hourglass down to its last grains of sand.

Since leaving the club at the end of his contract, Pogba for the second time in his career made the switch from Manchester United to Juventus, returning to the Serie A giants.

His second spell at Juventus could be described as tumultuous at best. Making just twelve appearances in all competitions, Juve’s #10 has again struggled with injuries.

Worse yet, after failing a drugs test in early September, Pogba would go on to be suspended for four years by the Italian Anti-Doping National Tribunal on February 29th of this year.

Discussing his former talisman’s decline, Mourinho admitted he finds no joy in the path Pogba’s career has followed.

“I am not enjoying Paul’s situation at all,” Mourinho stated. “When you are supported by the power, by the hierarchy, the message that passes through is very positive in the group.

“When you are not supported … because the player is more important or what the player represents is more important – then you are in a fragile situation. Even if you are a coach with so much experience as was my case.”