Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revealed that Manchester United captain Antonio Valencia will leave the club at the end of the season after the club did not activate the option to renew his contract for one year. The Ecuador international was named captain last season by Jose Mourinho as he was the player who had been in the services of the club the longest.
Paul Pogba was listed as one of the club’s vice captain before he was stropped of it after criticizing Jose Mourinho’s tactics and mentality after a draw at home to Wolves. Now, the French world cup winner has found his form under the tutelage of Solskjaer and the Norwegian has hailed the former Juventus man for being a leader both on and off the pitch.
It’s claimed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set to hand the Manchester United captaincy to Paul Pogba, but former skipper Bryan Robson believes there are two candidates more suitable for the position. Pogba was stripped of vice-captaincy duties following a series of bust-ups with Jose Mourinho but he has been in brilliant form under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
With current club captain Antonio Valencia set to leave, Solskjaer is deciding upon a new captain and The Sun claims Pogba is the man at the head of the queue. But Robson, who won two Premier Leagues and three FA Cups with United while also captaining England on 65 occasions, believes Chris Smalling and Ander Herrera would be the best choices for the role. ‘In the current squad, because of the way they try to organise, they communicate with team-mates, I think we only have two who are quite good at that,’ he told Sport Witness.
So we have Chris Smalling, who tries to organise, he shouts at people, he organises people. And then Ander Herrera. I’ve watched him in training, he’s an organiser. And that’s what you need from your captain.’ While Robson believes Smalling and Herrera are good candidates, he’s unconvinced by Pogba’s credentials. ‘I mean, sometimes you can go with “Paul Pogba could be a captain”, but Paul would just be the best player,’ he added.
‘So he’s the best player, so you give him the captaincy because he’s the best player. But Paul plays more of an individual sort of side. ‘He’s not really saying to people “you come here, you come here, push forward”, or just applaud your teammate. When they give the ball away, you encourage them. You don’t always tell everybody off. ‘Sometimes you have to encourage your teammates, you can’t just be telling people off all the time… I think Herrera and Smalling are two captains.’
Robson moved to United for a British record transfer fee of £1.5 million on 1 October 1981 and signed the contract on the Old Trafford pitch two days later before a game against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The record fee set by Robson was not broken for six years. He became Captain and won League titles and FA Cups for the club.