Jose Mourinho issues blunt response to Paul Pogba’s criticism of his coaching at Manchester United

Pogba was critical of Mourinho’s handling of the players during his reign at Old Trafford

Lawrence Ostlere
Saturday 17 April 2021 09:38 BST
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Jose Mourinho at Goodison Park for Spurs’ draw with Everton
Jose Mourinho at Goodison Park for Spurs’ draw with Everton

Jose Mourinho bluntly dismissed Paul Pogba’s criticisms of his man management during their time together at Manchester United, saying: “I couldn’t care less.”

Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports this week, Pogba accused Mourinho of turning against his players during his three-year reign at Old Trafford. Pogba described a positive relationship with his manager initially as they won the League Cup and Europa League in 2017, before things quickly turned sour and he was stripped of the club’s vice-captaincy.

“What I have now with Ole is different because he wouldn’t go against the players,” Pogba said, days after he helped United beat Mourinho’s Spurs 3-1 in the Premier League. “It’s not like you put them on the side and they don’t exist any more. I think that’s the difference between Mourinho and Ole. Once I had a great relationship with Mourinho. Everybody sees that and the next day you don’t know what happened. That’s the strange thing I had with Mourinho. And I can not explain to you because, even me, I don’t know.”

Following Spurs’ 2-2 draw with Everton on Friday evening, Mourinho was asked whether he wanted to respond to Pogba’s comments.

“I would like to say I couldn’t care less with what he says,” Mourinho said. “I couldn’t care less. Not interested. At all.”

Last weekend Mourinho also clashed with his successor at United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in a heated exchange of words. Solskjaer was unhappy when Son Heung-min went down in the build-up to Edinson Cavani’s controversial disallowed opener in the game.

Mourinho said he was left “very disappointed” by Solskjaer’s claims that he would not feed his son if he had behaved like Son, but Pogba accused the Portuguese of using deflection tactics to take the focus away from Tottenham’s performance.

Pogba said: “I am sure Mourinho said something that made people speak. That’s what he does. We got the result that we wanted. Ole knows it and we enjoyed that moment. We know Mourinho and what he likes. We don’t need this.

“We just focus on us, we won the game, he lost the game, and he doesn’t want to speak about the game. He wants to speak about the dad of someone, that’s what he does. Everybody knows it. It’s very Mourinho.”

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