Mar 12
Now that he’s no longer barking, it’s time to unleash the Pog-ba
In recent years Manchester United have been at the centre of some of the more heavily media-scrutinised transfers. But if David Beckham and Ruud Van Nistelrooy moves to Real Madrid exemplified Fergie’s resoluteness in parting ways with loyal servants that had overstepped the line, and Ronaldo’s departure for the Spanish capital was seen as the sign of Fergie’s ability to conjure another season-winning trophy with his star before letting him leave for a world record transfer-fee, Rooney and Pogba are different cases.
The way their contracts disputes have been handled and the fact that they both play for Manchester United are just about the only two things Pogba and Rooney and have in common but, much as he had done last October when Rooney had threatened to throw his extremely expensive toys out of the pram and leave Old Trafford for good, Fergie played a major role in convincing the French youngster to stay, when a deal with Juventus looked set to be announced.
Had Pogba signed with the Serie A side, United could have missed out on one of the most exciting talents seen in their reserve side for years.
The 19-year-old Frenchman arrived at United three years ago on a transfer sealed in controversial circumstances – Pogba has already built a reputation for himself in this field – after he left Le Havre to join United Academy.
The decision left Le Havre incensed as they had signed a “non-solicitation agreement” with the player and his family in 2006, based on whom the Ligue 1 team would have had priority on Pogba once the agreement expired at the end of the 2009-10 season.
The French club accused United of “tapping-up” Pogba and reported the club to FIFA, claiming that Pogba had joined United following a payment reportedly worth around £87k.
Amazingly, in the French equivalent of pot calling kettle black, according to Pogba’s former club Torcy, the teenager had been lured to Le Havre with the same strategy.
After leaving the controversies behind him, Pogba has proved a real talent since joining United, featuring regularly in the Academy team and in the Reserves after. He was an integral member of the Youth Cup winning side of 2010/11 scoring a real beauty against Portsmouth in the third round and many other tremendous, show-stopping strikes from distance and some impressive displays of trickery and class in the league. He scored one of his best goals against Derby away from home in 2010/11 which you’ll find from 2:02 minutes.
The Premier League seemed only the natural step forward for the Frenchman – hailed by some as the new Vieira – particularly considering United lack of options in the middle of the park.
Despite a cameo appearance against Stoke at the beginning of January, rumours persisted hinting that Pogba had made his mind up, refused a contract and was set to join Juventus.
Fergie has, undoubtedly, played his part again. He was fuming when he heard that Pogba’s agent was trying to engineer a move away for his protege, which would have earned Mr Raiola (the man who also looks after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s interests) a hefty bonus.
The rumours have since gone quiet, unlike the Old Trafford crowd, that gave Pogba a warm welcome as he replaced Paul Scholes against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
That was a sound that Pogba might grow to become familiar with in the future.
Daniele (@MUFC_dan87)
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The_Philosopher (481)
Redrich (252)
Opti (215)
Stephen (187)
Moscow (150)
Daniele – is it a certainty then that Pogba is staying, because ESPN are now reporting that he is still undecided. Have we had confirmation from the club????
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@Craig Mc: the club hasn’t confirmed it yet. But he IS staying. And, to wheel out the worst journalistic cliche, you’ve heard it here first.
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apparently everyone else is reporting he is staying except the most important site.Man utd.com
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The ESPN report seems to have been written yesterday.
It is Sky Sports who seem convinced that Pogba has signed, everyone else is just repeating this. I guess we’ll soon get either a confirmation or a denial from the club.
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He’s staying! I’ve been over this on the RedRants twitter account for three days now……
Why would the club feel the need to tell anyone anything?
Why would they need to publish a statement? THEY know what’s happening and tbh they couldn’t give 2 fooks who else knows. Not you, not me, not any fan anywhere in the world. They know that the club is like a leaky ship anyway, has been for years. No matter how hard they try to keep things in-house certain goings-on will always make their way into the public domain.
Do you have any idea how many contracts and negotiations take place on a daily/weekly basis? Probably dozens but rarely do they filter out because there’s no interest, the Pogba case is slightly different thanks to a loose-lipped agent and a hesitant player with great ability.
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@Ian: No, the club always make a public statement when players sign new contracts. If there’s been no statement then it isn’t 100% settled yet.
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I’m not saying it is but you’re wrong, they don’t always make a statement when a player they already own extends his contract.
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@Ian: I can’t think of a case when they haven’t. But in any case they don’t try to keep this sort of thing secret. So if Sky ask the club to confirm this rumour (as they will have been doing)and the club refuse to comment then that means we don’t yet have a deal.
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Okay so agenda:
1) extend Contract
2) Make Statement
haha No. Only when they sign a player will this happen, an internal extension won’t/doesn’t have the same agenda.
Confirming it when questioned and ‘making a statement ‘ are completely different things aren’t they?
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@Ian: You were complaining that the club don’t care about the fans and never tell us anything. Bollocks! Have you never visited the club website? This is a high profile story, there WILL be a statement on it when it is resolved. Let’s wait for the offical statement rather than relying on rumours, OK?
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Chris, the last thing I was doing was complaining about the club, I was stating my opinion that they don’t give a shit that you might want to know the answer to something, there’s a huge difference. When did I mention ‘they never tell us anything’? I don’t recall saying that. They tell people what they want or what they’re forced to, if they didn’t need the media to make money and honour contractual commitments you know they would ban them all and possibly everyone else from Carrington, instead they manage to continue the family environment feel at the club despite it being a huge business and knowing that stories leak. Ever imagined walking into the grounds of say BP or Tesco? You’d be escorted off-site in no time.
They tell ‘the fans’ what they already more or less know which is what they’ll be doing when they ‘confirm’ the Pogba deal, the news is already out, it’s just a matter of time before they stamp it, probably because the deal isn’t completed yet. The club is like a leaky ship but most of what happens does remain secret.
Contracts are finalised all the time but the club don’t make a ‘statement’ or stick it on their website until the interest is hyped up like this Pogba deal, and why should they? Why should anyone want their private dealings plastered across the media? It’s business between club and player, not gossip from a Monday morning mother’s meeting.
And you’re right they WILL probably make a statement on this occasion because of the hype and the need to put it to bed, if they don’t the questions will rumble on and they get no peace, basically it’s about appeasing people now. I can think of many occasions when they haven’t made a statement btw.
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@Ian: you said: “Why would the club feel the need to tell anyone anything?”
along the same lines… ChrisW is right. it’s not like the club is hiding these statements. they may just not make them as public as YOU would like or ur not a developed user of the Internet and of computers.
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Bob, imo, there are/will be many secrets/dealings that no-one outside the club knows about, many more than those that are public knowledge that’s for sure.
Is this conversation ever going to end or will it just take me to say….’you guys are right, the club issues statements about everything that happens within the club to satisfy the supporters.’
That’s all this is about, I’m not sure why people are intent on pursuing me about it. I think the club only release ‘statements’ when they have to, other people disagree. It’s a difference of opinion, that is all……no?
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Come on Pog-ba ,you know Home is where OLD Trafford is
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I am not going to feel reassured until I see him still with us start of next season or I get an official announcement. Still if he does stay with us that means we are sorted in defensive midfield regardless of whether Fletcher makes a full recovery or not and the only pressing concern is to dump Anderson and buy a quality central midfielder in the Modric mould
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@colver: i reckon he’ll stay. after fergie said he was definitely first team material and stuff and put him on as a sub. fergie knows how to play balll
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I’m still not sure whether I like the lad or not. He’s obviously a talented footballer, a star in the making, but I seriously cannot decide whether he is someone I can respect or not. If it’s because of his agent, like Rooney, I can forgive him. Agents are manipulative bastards and can easily get into the head of a young lad. A footballer, who makes so much money and surely feels like they can do nothing wrong, those are probably the easiest to get to. Pogba, Rooney, Becks even. I’ve forgiven Rooney because it’s pretty obvious that was all about his agent, I’ve read stuff said by Andy Cole and other clients of his and he seems a total dick. Pogba on the other hand, I don’t know. If this is yet again all about the agent, and he’s decided to stop listening to him, then I’ll see if his performances and personality is worthy of respect. But if this is solely on him, that he doesn’t want to stay at this club and is only playing football for money, then fuck him. I know there are an insane amount of footballers out there who only play for money these days, but I don’t want those type of guys at United. We are not your everyday club. I’ll see what has happend before I express my delight in this or not, just hope that this will make the club better.
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@RedDevilEddy:
I don’t know either, What is this boy think? Playing for United mean you are 0.0001% of all football players, It is no brainier for me. If he want to go Italy so be it, United missed Zidane etc and team doing fine without them.
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“The rumours have since gone quiet, unlike the Old Trafford crowd, that gave Pogba a warm welcome as he replaced Paul Scholes against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday” I’m glad you heard it that way, I heard a fair few boo’s heading in his direction when he came on the pitch
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@Murph: did u watch the game? the crowd went MENTAL every touch pogba had with the ball. amazing to be honest. hopefully really helped him decide on spending his future with us. at the right and best club!
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All I’d Say is….
Get Martinez and Modric (Or M’Villa & Hazard)… and then them Petrucci, Pogba and Cleverley you have an exciting midfiled which can takes us back into europe with pride in next 1-2 yrs!!!
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@JonyB: hazarrddd
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@Ian:
how are you so sure about this news?what is your source for this info???or is it just because he came on as a sub against wbrom???imo no deal is signed yet and pogba is still undecided.SAF brought him in the matchday squad and on as a sub just to show him what he’s gonna miss if he leaves…
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If you follow @Red_Rants on Twitter you will know all this.
What news? I trust what I heard…..that’s it. What I sdaid was I think he’s agreed (at least) to stay and that Juve was not a done deal it was a load of bollocks. I tweeted that on Thursday and took quite a bit of stick (which I couldn’t give a toss about if I’m honest) and people who obviously have minds like yours asking “how do you know…?” “what’s your source?” and tbh I dislike people like that…..nosey bastards! I tweeted it, it looks like it was right, end of story, move on. Yet days later you’re here suggesting I said it after the WBA game. It doesn’t matter where it came from, I have no sources, I fookin HATE ‘sources’, so fookin melodramatic and pretentious.
Get a life!
PS: (and I quote…..) “SAF brought him in the matchday squad and on as a sub just to show him what he’s gonna miss if he leaves…”
What’s your source?
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@Ian:
man,it was just an honest inquiry.did not mean to offend you at all.its just that we hear so many rumors about countless players coming to old trafford none of which actually comes true these days.in any case i do apologize for it.also i do not follow redrants on twitter so didn’t know the whole story.but a “nosey bastard” like me should have known that you’d been tweeting about it since days.once again sorry for wasting your precious time.but then again as you say i have no life…
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@Swapnil: DUMB and POINTLESS
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Have you seen this? Thought it was a good time to bump this.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/hFCDnufsyPI
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I honestly think we lost out in letting Pogba leave and that is reflected in his performances for Juventus since he joined them. Granted that hes playing in a slower paced and weaker league compared to the Premier League but surely he would have come good if he would have been given more chances by SAF?
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