Mourinho: ‘I’m not enjoying what’s happening to Pogba’

Former Manchester United and Roma coach Jose Mourinho says he takes no pleasure from seeing Paul Pogba suffering on the sidelines. The pair famously clashed during their time in Manchester, with the Special One eventually being sacked by the club. Speaking with The Telegraph the Portuguese tactician recounted their time together and explained how things changed after Pogba returned from the World Cup:

“The only thing I say is that it happens with almost everybody in some moments of your career: you lose a little bit the sense of who you are and what you have to be. The season after France won the [2018] World Cup, I think Paul came back different. The World Cup brought him into a dimension where football was not the most important thing for him. Sharing the philosophy of everyone; everyone with the same level of responsibilities.”

The two men have no ill feeling now, Mourinho says. They saw each other before games between Juventus and Roma. “I am not,” Mourinho says, “enjoying Paul’s situation at all.”

“When you are supported by the power, by the hierarchy, the message that passes through is very positive in the group,” Mourinho says. “When you are not supported … because the player is more important or what the player represents is more important – then you are in a fragile situation. Even if you are a coach with so much experience as was my case.”