Patrice Evra has claimed that Manchester United signed Paul Pogba in 2016 to embarrass legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Pogba came through the ranks at United having joined the club as an extremely talented 16-year-old prospect.
However, he controversially left in 2012 after failing to convince Sir Alex to afford him more playing time in the senior team. This led to Pogba leaving United to sign for Juventus as a free agent.
After four successful years in Turin where he cemented his status as one of Europe’s best midfielders, the Red Devils broke the back to bring back the Frenchman in a deal worth £89m, a world-record transfer fee at the time.
Pogba put pen to paper on a five-year contract. He had some nice moments during his second spell at Old Trafford but the overwhelming sentiment was that he didn’t really live up to his price tag and massive potential.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Evra said that United forked out the money to land Pogba in a bid to “sell shirts” and “humiliate” Fergie.
Evra remarked, “Manchester United brought Paul Pogba back because they wanted to humiliate Sir Alex Ferguson. I told Paul to not go back because he wanted Real Madrid and Madrid wanted him, but Florentino Pérez didn’t want to pay the money.”
“His agent called United, and he signed with him without telling me. The club was happy because they were selling shirts, you know the kids love Pogba – it was more commercial than anything on the pitch.”
Evra added, “It’s not about being a big fan of Paul Pogba, it’s about being his big brother. It’s about protecting him. I was harsh with him when I joined Juventus.”
“One day, he said to the press, ‘I deserve to win the Ballon d’Or’. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, did you ever hear [Frank] Lampard saying that, did you ever hear [Andrés] Iniesta, Xavi or whatever?’ And, I’m like, ‘Calm down, you’re not ready for that.’”
“With Paul, you see him like that, but inside, he’s not that strong and he’s protecting himself, and that’s why I tried to protect Paul, because sometimes it [the criticism of him] was unfair. People were talking more about his hairstyle or his dancing than judging him on the pitch. Even sometimes he wasn’t playing, they were saying, ‘United lost because of Paul Pogba.’”
Evra insisted that Pogba’s entourage let him down as they could have done more to protect him.
One of Pogba’s strongest critics at United was former Liverpool man Graeme Souness.
According to Evra, he had a chat with Souness and the 71-year-old told him that he didn’t hate Pogba but was only “frustrated” by the World Cup winner’s perceived inability to perform well on a consistent basis.
Evra further stated that Pogba “felt lost” in United’s midfield as he often had to cover for some of his teammates – something that regularly left him exposed and susceptible to attacks from supporters and the media.
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