Ralf Rangnick may have raised one or two eyebrows earlier in the week when he suggested the rest of Paul Pogba’s season for Manchester United could essentially be an audition ahead of a free transferaway from Old Trafford in the summer.
However, for many inside the club, this has been on the cards for a while, with sources telling CaughtOffside that Pogba’s relationship with Man Utd has been strained for some time.
There are no specific issues between Rangnick and Pogba, but it’s been well publicised that the 28-year-old did not see eye to eye with Jose Mourinho, with the pair once famously pictured clashing on the training ground by Sky Sports cameras, while Mourinho referred to the player as a ‘virus’ in his squad.
Things improved in the early part of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign, but the writing was on the wall for Pogba when Bruno Fernandes was signed from Sporting Lisbon. The Portugal international was an instant hit at United, showing he could give the team everything they’d been expecting from Pogba in a central role.
This led to Solskjaer even shifting Pogba out onto the left-hand side last season, signalling that the Norwegian tactician was no longer ready to build around the former Juventus man. This tactical shift was not in itself a huge problem for Pogba, who showed some superb form in that area of the pitch, but it was one of many long-standing issues in a deteriorating relationship between the club and the player.
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