Manchester United: Paul Pogba, David de Gea and the problems that have left Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with an 'impossible job'

The lack of a proper football strategy has led to a dysfunctional football team and has the new manager desperately scrambling to turn things around

In the immediate aftermath of the latest disappointment against Chelsea, one senior Manchester United player just seemed resigned. “Get ready for an exodus,” he told a friend.

That is not just because Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been given the mandate for a badly needed overhaul of the squad. It is because the dressing room is right now such an unhappy place, where many players Solskjaer would prefer to keep want to leave.

The sense of drift is unmistakable, with so many long-term problems finally coming together in such damaging but inevitable fashion to push the club away from the top level.

The lack of a proper football strategy has led to a dysfunctional football team, that looks no closer to challenging for anything, and thereby has so many players looking elsewhere.

A lightning rod for so much with United right now, Paul Pogba is the most prominent example of this. Sources say he is “desperate” to go to Real Madrid. At 26, Pogba feels that promises made by the club have not come through, and is now unwilling to spend his prime waiting for United to build something like a top-level side.

Many around the club understandably feel that is rich coming from a player who has been so underwhelming relative to his status. Just one of many dressing-room concerns right now is that Pogba has a negative influence on Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford, the latter of whom is seen to have lost his previously endearing humility.

One source feels this is the only real influence Pogba will have. “I do think he’s incredibly immature and will never really be a ‘senior’ player in a dressing room. Young players will always think they can f*** around when he’s there. He doesn’t have any right or precedent to set standards. It’s a cliche but teams that win stuff need the big players to step up and set behavioural norms.”

Although that is true, Pogba does reflect what has become a different norm for the squad: dissatisfaction at where it’s all going. Many would take issue with Pogba given his own contribution to this problem, but few would fault his rationale in wanting to leave. Why hang around?

Romelu Lukaku is a similar age to Pogba, and has similar concerns: that he will spend his prime at a club not challenging for the premium trophies. He is considering his options, with Internazionale - who will spend big this summer - a possibility.

Rashford is meanwhile stalling on a new deal, in the face of interest from Barcelona.

David De Gea is more measured, and feels a loyalty to the club, but is concerned that the Spanish-speaking contingent - and, essentially, his closest friends in Juan Mata and Ander Herrera, not to mention Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo - will be broken up. The goalkeeper’s own unsigned new contract shows how he is considering his options, with Paris Saint-Germain and - to a lesser degree - Juventus interested. Much will depend on whether Gigi Buffon retires.

De Gea is one of many players considering their futures (PA)

Only feeding into this is De Gea’s knowledge of Alexis Sanchez’s contract, reflecting more problems and lack of foresight with the recruitment policy.

The Chilean is one of a number on such deals that they’re going to be very difficult to discard. Sources say United may have to look at some complicated arrangements, such as swap/cash deals or situations where wages are subsidised.

This may be necessary, but points to the next part of the problem.

Does the club really have the wherewithal to overhaul the squad to the level required, to bring in the players required?

Missing out on the Champions League will be even more problematic in that regard. There is already a little less hope on the Jadon Sancho pursuit, and Borussia Dortmund are fairly insistent they will not sell this summer.

Pogba's form or lack thereof is a significant problem for Solskjaer (Getty)

One figure who has worked with the club on deals meanwhile says the list of targets is just going up. United had initially been aiming to only bring in a right-winger, a right-back and a centre-half but that is now seemingly being added to by the week.

This is where the need for a director who defines a recruitment strategy, and an identity that players neatly fit into, becomes all the more acute.

This is how you spend £800m in six years and end up with this squad.

This is why some now feel Solskjaer has an “almost impossible job”. Regardless of the concerns over the manager’s own suitability - something else that just displays the lack of foresight - the structure around him is not exactly technically supportive for such an inexperienced figure.

Solskjaer does at least have some concrete plans of his own. Players like Mason Greenwood will be promoted. Toni Kroos and Raphael Varane have been mentioned as potential signings in one of those swap deals, for Pogba, especially as Madrid need to find a way to complete their own overhaul without just spending a lot. They need to raise funds, but Zinedine Zidane has raised Pogba’s name as a priority.

Some at the club are not so much resigned to the midfielder leaving, but now want it.

This is where United are at. A star initially seen as a potential final piece is now just the first of so many problems.