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Man Utd News: Paul Pogba did NOT win war - Frenchman challenged after Mourinho sack
PAUL POGBA didn’t win a war with Jose Mourinho and Manchester United when the club decided to sack the Portuguese, according to former Red Devils stopper Peter Schmeichel.
Mourinho was given the boot by United chiefs on Tuesday morning, two days after his now former side suffered their fifth league defeat of the season at the hands of Liverpool.
Moments after the announcement, Pogba appeared to mock the Special One on his social media pages, posting a picture of himself smirking with the accompanying caption: “Caption this.”
Pogba, who quickly deleted the post, had a number of spats with Mourinho before the United hierarchy wielded the axe, the first of which saw him publicly question his former manager’s tactics after the 3-2 defeat to Brighton.
At one point, the futures of both men were up in the air and many were wondering who would be left standing once the club decided to take action.
Pogba has ended up outstaying the former Chelsea and Real Madrid man.
But Schmeichel believes it won’t be a victory for the Frenchman until he starts reproducing his international form for his club.
"Mourinho did put himself in the limelight, not in the correct way or the way that you want the United manager to be," Schmeichel told BBC Radio 5 Live. "There were stories about the manager being at war with certain players.
"That's happened many times, but the club has always been able to deal with that in the dressing room.
Pogba, or any other player, cannot be bigger than the club
"I want to see Pogba being a United player as good as everything else he does in life.
"He's absolutely brilliant on social media, and he's projecting himself to be this incredibly important player.
"We've seen it at Juventus, we've seen it with France, we haven't seen it with Manchester United.
"And what's really important here is that no player, regardless of how much money they make, how much they've been bought for, has ever been bigger than the club or the manager.
"This has been now portrayed like Pogba has won a war, this doesn't work for me, that cannot happen for United.
"It's now really important that the club deal with this situation. Pogba, or any other player, cannot be bigger than the club."
Pogba and his United team-mates will next be in action on Boxing Day, welcoming relegation-threatened Huddersfield to Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are currently toiling in sixth place in the table but closed the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea with a 5-1 victory over Cardiff on Saturday evening.