Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has told his Machester United stars that ‘nobody is bigger than this club’ after praising Paul Pogba’s performances since Mino Raiola’s incendiary comments last week. Pogba’s agent gave an interview in Italy in which he sounded the death knell for the midfielder’s Old Trafford career, with the publication of the comments a day before United’s crucial Champions League decider at RB Leipzig causing frustration inside the club. While Raiola’s comments have reaffirmed Pogba’s desire to leave Old Trafford, the midfielder has done his talking on the pitch and Solskjaer insists he has the ‘United DNA’, despite agitating for a move away from the club.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said “Paul was here as a kid in the under-18s, we signed him early on, he comes with the Man United DNA in him. He knows what we are about, Man United is about being in a team. I would not stand for anyone thinking he is bigger than Man United because no-one is. Absolutely no-one is and Paul knows this. It is not only Paul, it is for all of us. Paul has always been an ambitious boy who loves playing football. He trains well, he never refuses to train or play, he has got a good attitude. Of course he wants to do as well as he can when he is in the team, however many minutes he gets on the pitch. Have you got your stats from when Paul came back from injury this summer when we restarted after lockdown,” Solskjaer responded after the record of the pair this season was put to him. We were about 14 points behind Leicester and I think Paul and Bruno and Nemanja played just about every single game in midfield. So if you look back to that, the stats this season are a bit skewed. Paul has been injured this season, he has had Covid. Now he is just about getting back to full fitness. It is not about Bruno or Paul, it is more than that. It is the balance in the team. Some games they will play together, some times they won’t.”