It’s no secret that Graeme Souness hasn’t been Paul Pogba’s biggest fan since the midfielder returned to Manchester United from Juventus in 2016.Souness, in his role as one of Sky Sports’ leading pundits, has been critical of Pogba on numerous occasions over the past five seasons.While some of the criticism has been justified - Pogba hasn’t always performed well during his second spell with the Red Devils - there have been times when the Scot’s comments have felt over the top.Souness has criticised Pogba on so many occasions over the years that it’s become something of a running joke on social media.Whenever something goes awry, the same Souness meme inevitably pops up.During the recent Facebook outage, for example, people tweeted out the Souness meme alongside captions like: ‘Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are all down but what is Paul Pogba doing to fix it?’
When Souness was silenced after criticising Pogba
However, there was one occasion when Souness criticised Pogba before being silenced by his Sky Sports colleagues.
Man Utd had just recorded a 2-0 victory away at Burnley in September 2018 but Pogba missed a penalty during the game.
It was clear that the relationship between Pogba and Jose Mourinho, United’s manager at the time, was strained and in danger of falling apart completely.
At the start of the 2018-19 season, after United beat Leicester City 2-1 at Old Trafford, Pogba told reporters: “There are things I can say and there are things that I cannot say otherwise I will get fined.”
This angered Souness, who brought it up several weeks later as a sign that Pogba wasn’t pulling in the same direction as his manager and some of his teammates.
As soon as Souness mentioned Pogba, Craig Bellamy (on punditry duty for Sky Sports) couldn’t help but laugh to himself.
Souness concluded his rant by saying: “He’s been offered olive branches and he’s chosen not to pick them up.”
Sky Sports host Dave Jones then made everyone laugh - aside from Souness - when he replied: “Good job they won today, wasn’t it!”
The look on Souness’s face…
If looks could kill!
Watch the clip here:
Will Pogba sign new Man Utd contract?
Pogba has been in fine form at the start of the current campaign and returns to Man Utd with a UEFA Nations League winners’ medal after France’s 2-1 victory over Spain on Sunday.
However, Pogba’s United contract expires at the end of the campaign and it’s currently unclear whether he will put pen to paper on a new deal.
One of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s priorities is to ensure that happens.
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