Ahead of today’s come from behind win at West Ham United, former Manchester United man Patrice Evra revealed that current Red Devils midfielder Paul Pogba tried to leave the club. It’s not shocking news, given all the transfer rumors that have surrounded him, but it’s still a significant development to hear this narrative from such a trusted source.
Evra, now a talking head with Sky Sports, is a good friend of his fellow Frenchman and also his former teammate at Juventus. Evra said today during a television punditry appearance that Pogba asked the United board to let him leave and move on.
Pogba has spent most of the season either battling fitness issues or coming off the bench, so this has been a brutal season to say the least. However, after looking awful in the first half today on the road at West Ham United, he opened the scoring for the Red Devils, and started yet another away game comeback.
Here’s what Evra said on TV, ahead of the game (transcript Manchester Evening News):
“First of all, heโs had a bad ankle injury. There was lots of negative talk with what heโs been saying during his period with the French national team, the fans didnโt appreciate it. But I think itโs normal heโs starting today with Fred and Bruno missing.
“I think Ole wants Pogba to prove himself so he can be on the team sheet all the time.”
“The position of Paul is really easy. He spoke to the board, he wanted to leave Man United to a certain point, they kept him, so itโs difficult to blame him because heโs been honest with the board.”
“Now heโs playing, he needs to respect the shirt, his team-mates, the manager and then heโll have a great chance.”
“I can already feel that people just wait for Paul to fail to again criticise him. Itโs been a problem because they didnโt deal with it at the beginning of the season, in truth.”
Well, Pogba didn’t fail today, so there wasn’t as much criticism as usual to go around today. However, it’s hard to argue with a lot of points that Evra made about his countryman and the situation surrounding him.
Pogba does need to show that he’s really playing for the shirt more often. And yes, the United board could have really done a much better job in handling this situation.
Paul M. Banks runsย The Sports Bank, partnered withย News Now.ย Banks, the author ofย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,โ has regularly appeared inย WGN,ย Sports Illustrated,ย Chicago Tribuneย andย SB Nation.ย Follow himย onย Twitterย andย Instagram.
