Paul Pogba makes damning Man Utd admission which speaks volumes - 'Mentally I wasn't there'

Paul Pogba has admitted that he “wasn’t there” mentally during the final years of his time at .

made 233 appearances for United after re-joining the club in a blockbuster £89million transfer in the summer of 2016. The central midfielder arrived with huge expectations after four impressive years with , but failed to live up to them, with injuries and inconsistent performances holding him back.

While Pogba did help United win the and EFL Cup, his legacy at the club is largely one of unfulfilled promise. He left in the summer of 2022 to return to Juve having turned into a fading force.

The former France international believes that his best campaign came in 2018/19, when was replaced by mid-season. Pogba returned 16 goals and 11 assists in 47 matches across all competitions that season but now admits that he wanted to use that form as a springboard to leave the club, only for Ed Woodward to stop him.

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“I will tell you something I’ve never told anyone,” Pogba told the . “The year Jose went and Ole came, it was my best season at United but after the last game I told Ole and Ed Woodward that I thought it was my last year and that I wanted to leave.

“I was 27 back then, it didn’t work out the way I wanted. I gave my best but I didn’t see the club going upwards. and were better than us and they were improving. Ole said yes (to me leaving) and that he would talk to Ed.

“My head was already that I wanted to go but I came back for pre-season because I wanted to be professional. I spoke to Ed to try to make a move but he blocked it. I didn’t want to play for United anymore but I had to be professional. Mentally I wasn’t there and then I got the injuries.”

Woodward was executive vice-chairman of United at the time and was the key decision-maker behind the scenes then. He decided it would be best to keep hold of Pogba, having only got three seasons out of him by then, but it didn’t work out.

Pogba became an increasingly peripheral figure in the final years of his time at United, as well as becoming a lightning rod for criticism. He left for Juve as a free agent in 2022, but has been dogged by problems ever since, playing just eight times in Serie A since.

The World Cup winner struggled with injuries before being handed a four-year ban after testing positive for elevated levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which can raise testosterone. He has since had that ban reduced to 18 months on appeal and will be able to return to playing in March.

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