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I criticized Paul Pogba often during his career and some people seemed to have fun with it. But the only thing I felt this week was sadness, when I found out that he had been suspended from football for four years for a doping crime.
For me there was never any doubt about Pogba’s ability. What I saw in him was a player with great technical and physical ability who had the potential to be one of the best midfielders our sport had ever known.
It was their lack of honesty and low levels of effort that always frustrated me. Frankly, he was lazy. Someone with the extreme talent that he possessed should perform in a way that allows him to be remembered as one of the best players in the world, long after he has left the stage.
Instead, he wasted his career. After winning the World Cup with France in Russia in 2018, he allowed himself to sit in his chair and was never fully committed to the cause of being a team player.
I criticized it to such an extent (and I’m not happy to say I was right) because I could see that enormous potential. I saw the type of player he could become.
Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba suspended for four years after failing a doping test.
The long ban will likely spell the end of the 30-year-old’s career on the football field.
Mail Sport’s Graeme Souness reflects on the highs and lows of the Frenchman’s career
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It was like when I worked as a coach/coach and I was constantly on one or another of my players. They’d say, ‘Why do you bother me all the time?’ He told them: ‘The time to worry is when I stop talking about you and stop criticizing you, because that means I have given up on you.’
Pogba was certainly in that category. You would have persevered with him, but I’m sorry to say that I think he was lost after winning that World Cup. He was a good example of someone who achieves too much, too soon, in his career.
Wealth. Fame. Winning is the most important thing you can win in football. It meant he rested on his laurels, enjoyed the praise and went through the motions.
He should have retired with multiple honors, remembered as one of his generation. Instead, he is someone who wasted the talents and athleticism God gave him.
I remember watching him play for Juventus at the Bernabéu, where Juventus were playing Real Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final in 2015. Jamie Redknapp had been raving about him.
He told me: ‘Wait until you see him play.’ He was playing with Thierry Henry and Jamie and, although he didn’t do it for me that night, I did see a young man with enormous potential, who could be one of the greats.
We caught a glimpse of him three years later, in his performances for France at that 2018 World Cup. He played practically the entire tournament, missing only France’s last group stage match, and I must say that he surprised me with his discipline and industry at all times. .
Pogba was a player with great technical ability but he did not know how to demonstrate it consistently
There were always doubts that Pogba could carry out the coach’s instructions on the field
Souness claims Juventus star was ‘lost’ after winning 2018 World Cup
Suddenly, he was no longer playing for Paul Pogba, but as part of an overall team plan. There were times when we saw him retreat with the same intensity he showed when he ran forward. By scoring France’s third goal in the final against Croatia, he effectively sealed the trophy.
I was still surprised to find him linked with a move to Manchester City that same summer. I said at the time that I felt Pogba probably had more, if not more, natural talent than Bernardo Silva or Kevin De Bruyne.
But who would you trust to carry out the majority of the coach’s instructions for the full 90 minutes? It was a rhetorical question. That’s where this player’s tragedy always lay.
We didn’t meet during the years I was covering some of the important games he played for Juventus and Manchester United. He made noises that he wanted to meet me at one point and I told him that he was more than happy to do so, although it never happened.
It is sad to know that the drug test found elevated levels of testosterone in his system. As if she didn’t have enough athleticism. A drug like that would make him more powerful, with higher energy levels and would also make him an angrier person.
He is 30 years old and we will not see him again in the elite. A desperately sad end to the career of someone who had the world at his feet and who could still have been talked about, in 20, 30 or 40 years.
The four-year ban is a desperately sad end to the career of such a talented player.
Klopp’s faith in youngsters rewarded after Carabao Cup success
We saw opposite sides of the football spectrum at Wembley last Sunday. One team, Liverpool, has young players. Another, Chelsea, who have just gone out and spent millions. The defeat will have been doubly painful for Chelsea because of that.
As I write this, Liverpool will be targeting kids from other teams in England and beyond, and you can bet your life that their recruitment department will take Sunday as every opportunity to plead their case going forward.
Jurgen Klopp will have had to trust his instincts when fielding those young players. Of course, he would have trusted them. But performing at Wembley? And deal with that pressure? He couldn’t have been completely sure.
The debut of one of my least remembered signings as Liverpool manager illustrates how, when it comes to blooding young players, you often have to act on instinct and intuition that a player will be up to the task asked of him. .
Rob Jones, who I signed from Crewe Alexandra, had only been with us for two or three days when I sent him to face Manchester United, our biggest rival, at Old Trafford in 1987.
I could see in Rob’s few training sessions with us that he had talent, but at Old Trafford he was up against Ryan Giggs, who was in his prime at the time. As a coach, you look at him in the first ten or 15 minutes of the game and you ask yourself: ‘How is he going to deal with this? Ryan Giggs passes him a couple of times and then his head does a 360 degree turn? Rob was named man of the match in a goalless draw.
Sunday’s victory changes nothing for Liverpool. Those guys aren’t good enough to play for Liverpool every week, although they performed well again in Wednesday’s FA Cup fifth round win against Southampton. What happens with young players at the beginning of their careers is ups and downs. You still have to insert them gently.
Jurgen Klopp’s young stars pose after their Carabao Cup victory over Chelsea on Sunday.
Goodbye to one of the great football entertainers
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Stan Bowles.
He was a magical player, who I faced several times when Liverpool and QPR faced each other.
He was cheerful and a mickey-taker on the field, and usually had something to say if he hit an opponent with a shot. Stan was one of the great entertainers. We will miss you.
Former QPR star Stan Bowles has died aged 75 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
Butland shines in Scotland
I hope Jack Butland’s performances for Rangers haven’t gone unnoticed by Gareth Southgate because I think he deserves England’s consideration.
His excellence this season demonstrates to any English player who might feel smug about joining Rangers what a great environment this is. Jack is an excellent kicker of the ball, he has great size and excellent positioning.
Jack, along with Rangers coach Philippe Clement, will join me at an event at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on Sunday night, where I hope not to say too much and hear them both offer their vision of the modern Rangers. Join us. There are still some tickets left.