Paul Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, has added to the turmoil around Manchester United by attacking Paul Scholes and joking that the club’s former midfielder should be appointed sports director and advise Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, to sell the Frenchman. Raiola’s intervention came after Scholes criticised Pogba’s performance in the defeat at Brighton and said there was “a lack of leaders in the team”. Pogba is the captain.
In two tweets yesterday morning Raiola responded: “Some people need to talk for fear of being forgotten. Paul Scholes wouldn’t recognise a leader if he was in front of Sir Winston Churchill. Paul Scholes should become sports director and advise Woodward to sell Pogba. Would be sleepless nights to find Pogba a new club.”
Pogba is known to be unhappy at United and favours a move to Barcelona before the Spanish window closes at the end of the month, so Raiola’s last comment may be a reference to this.
Gary Neville, a former teammate of Scholes, verbally attacked Woodward for failing to give Jose Mourinho carte blanche in the summer transfer window. Woodward refused to sign off the manager’s wish to purchase a top-class centre-back, with Leicester’s Harry Maguire, Jerome Boateng of Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid’s Diego Godin among the manager’s targets.
“He is in his third season and I think he will feel extremely disappointed that he wasn’t supported in the transfer market,” Neville said. “You can’t leave a house three-quarters built. You have to finish it and complete the build. Then you can think about selling it or renting it because nobody is going to pick it up off you half-built.”