Man Utd should get rid of greedy Paul Pogba just like West Ham did with Marko Arnautovic - 7M sport

Man Utd should get rid of greedy Paul Pogba just like West Ham did with Marko Arnautovic



Posted Saturday, October 05, 2019 by Thesun.co.uk

Man Utd should get rid of greedy Paul Pogba just like West Ham did with Marko Arnautovic
Man Utd should not be held to ransom by Paul Pogba and should sell him instead Credit: PA:Empics Sport

GREAT players are at the heart of the best football.

But reports that Paul Pogba wants ï¿¡600,000 A WEEK to remain with Manchester United beyond his current contract made me wonder what kind of reality we are straying into.

The amount might well be a negotiating ploy by his agent, Mino Raiola.

United already have form for bludgeoning players with pound notes and might see Raiola’s demands as an opening ploy in an auction for the France international’s future after 2021.

The club’s culture has changed as the old certainties of superiority changed.

Sir Alex Ferguson always acted on the basis that no one was bigger than the club.

If he thought someone thought that, he sold him.

No modestly-achieving midfielder could hold Fergie to ransom, no matter if he was a World Cup winner. That is no longer true.

And to make the mix doubly toxic, I believe the signing of Alexis Sanchez opened a can of worms the size of pythons

If it’s a fact that United were paying Sanchez ï¿¡500,000 a week or anything like that, the Chilean’s team-mates certainly believed something distinctly unfair was going on.

David De Gea, Pogba and even the placid Marcus Rashford were soon demanding something like equality. They were well aware that United paid no fee as Sanchez was swapped — surprise, surprise — for Raiola man Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Sanchez, a star at Arsenal, was a scuttling nobody at Old Trafford, out of place and soon out of the team.

To the men who held a deflating side together such as goalkeeper De Gea, the wage seemed both an insult and a negotiating tool.

He has settled for a reputed ï¿¡375,000 a week, 21-year-old Rashford for ï¿¡250,000.

I have no idea if these sums are true but even to me they are eye-watering. United had to subsidise Sanchez’s loan move to Inter Milan. It must be a worry for on-site boss Ed Woodward that a player of this class could not be integrated into the team structure.

The same went for Romelu Lukaku, another who couldn’t match up to the United style which, I’ll add because I’m no judge except — OK, I am on The Apprentice — that the sternest critics say they can’t find one, anyway.

What absentee owners the Glazers make of all this we don’t know, as they never tell us.

Still, never mind the club are tenth in the Premier League and already 12 points off bitter rivals Liverpool, they must have been rubbing their hands in glee at the club-record revenue of ï¿¡627.1million that was announced last week.

Unquestionably, executive vice-chairman Woodward is a financial whizz-bang and much admired by his colleagues in the Prem.

But while the cash rolls in the points don’t and Pogba is a target for fans.

Many believe he is not contributing to the bite factor needed in United’s midfield and reel at tales he now wants ï¿¡30m-a-year.

If that happens Pogba might be tempted to replace the current pink slash along his parting with one of gold, or even platinum.

Raiola is said to have made ï¿¡41M from the original United deal.

That’s by acting for United, selling club Juventus, Pogba and himself. Yes, the chubby chap is big on his own portion.

At last, oh Lord, at last, the football authorities are going to rein in these wolfish agents.

The lunacy that allows them to act for both clubs is about to end.

Commission fees will be limited to 3 per cent for buyers and six per cent to sellers.

But the shocking news for Raiola is Pogba will have to pay directly on his agreement to the agent — and there is no way on earth he is going to hand over ï¿¡25m.

Pogba might yet become as good as he thinks he is. But not, I suspect, with United.

My advice is simple. Tell him to clear off as West Ham did with Marco Arnautovic. In the end he was just a greedy pest.



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