Former Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has been talking about the strained nature of his relationship with Paul Pogba.
The dynamic between the pair was always in the spotlight – never more so than when Mourinho mad Pogba the United captain only to take the armband off him again.
World Cup winner Pogba is out of tonight’s Champions League clash with PSG through suspension and he is a huge miss on the evidence of recent form. Interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been credited with giving Pogba more freedom which has resulted in an improved goal return of nine from the last 15.
But the question still remains, why did Mourinho, one of the most successful managers of the modern era, find it so hard to get along with Pogba.
Mourinho addressed the topic during an interview with BeIn Sports. He explained: “I think the thing that normally is crucial and I’m thinking about all these things in the two months I’ve not been working.
“You try to always to find solutions for the problems, there is one problem that I cannot find a solution which is – when the player is playing he likes the manager, when he’s not playing he doesn’t like the manager.
“This is something basic that you can try to control a little bit, but that’s the nature and that nature you’re not going to change.
“They play, they are first-choice players, they like you very much, if they don’t play, they don’t like you very much. This is the basic thing you cannot change. Then, I think it’s about like in every job in the world with human beings, we like some people more than others. That’s normal.
“It’s the personality, the way of being, the way of thinking, you have more chemistry, empathy and chemistry. And that’s why some players are phenomenal with one manager and with another not so good. It’s chemistry.
“And one of the things I want to analyze and detail and to try to understand this situation better, you need to care more about the relations with the ones you don’t like.
“Because the ones you like and the ones who love you, you don’t need to feed it every day and every moment because it’s something you have for granted. Human nature is human nature.”