Was Letting Paul Pogba Leave Sir Alex Ferguson’s Biggest Mistake? (Video)

The 20-year-old Frenchman was poached from Le Havre by Manchester United in 2009, but only made seven first-team appearances which included three in the Premier League. After so little game time in a midfield as weak as United’s Pogba made the wise decision to let his contract wind down last summer.

You can’t blame Pogba for leaving as his physical and technical attributes are perfectly suited to the Premier League , and it must have been frustrating for him to constantly be overlooked in favour of Anderson a player who really failed live up to his billing as ‘the next Ronaldinho’ and the ageing Paul Scholes.

Pogba, who is now a regular in Antonio Conte’s Juventus squad, played a key role in helping the Italian giants retain the Serie A title , scoring four goals in 19 appearances for the Bianconeri.

After watching many of his performances for Juventus it was quite clear he had huge potential. Pogba is a player that you rarely come across in football, in the sense that he actually has so many strings to his bow. His performances in Serie A have shown he has great short and long passing ability as well as his ability to dribble past and beat his man. Yes you might be thinking that these are traits that are quite common in football, but when you add them to Pogba’s rocket shot and his aerial prowess and strength then a player with his range of qualities is very very hard to find. The only player that reminds me of Pogba is Yaya Toure, as he is the only player I can think of that has the same range of abilities as Pogba.

So why did he leave United?

He claims the reason why he had to leave was all down to manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

He told The Times: “I didn’t want to sign a contract as Ferguson didn’t play me, even though there were no midfielders there.

“He obviously thought I didn’t deserve the contract I asked for, and didn’t put me in the team even though he had no midfield players. It was his choice.

“United were short of players like me, but it was the manager’s decision. I couldn’t do anything about it. I was frustrated because he spoke to me a few times and said I was nearly there.

“I told him ‘If I don’t play then I can’t get any experience and see how far I have to go’. I played a few cup games but he didn’t want to give me a contract and they just let me go.”

 Follow @footyfriends    By Adeel Shafieq