The newest permanent manager at Old Trafford, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Paul Pogba has a “big, big part” to play at Old Trafford” despite speculation linking the French World Cup winner with a move to Real Madrid.
United midfielder Pogba last week described Madrid as a “dream club for every player” while on international duty with France and Zidane on Saturday hailed him as “a player who knows how to do everything”.
But Solskjaer is determined that Pogba, one of the world’s most marketable players, will not be a part of Zidane’s rebuilding plans and believes the midfielder simply gave a straight answer to a question.
“Paul is a very nice and polite man and he answered a general question. Of course, Zidane is an icon in France. Zidane is a fantastic manager and he used to be a fantastic player and I played against him”
“So Paul has politely answered that question. But he is happy here. He is going to be a big, big part of things here.”
“I have always said that you would like to build your team around him and that has not changed at all.”
“Football has changed and the structure at clubs has changed,” he said. “Ed and (co-chairman) Joel (Glazer) and me are looking at how this club can be run as smoothly as possible.”
“We will see what we end up with but I am happy talking football with knowledgeable people in the right positions anyway.”
“A manager can’t do as much as he used to do anyway. The demands of modern football mean that you have to split responsibilities.”
United will leapfrog Tottenham into third place if they win at Molineux, with Arsenal and Chelsea also fighting for the remaining two Champions League qualification spots behind Liverpool and Manchester City.
Talking about playing Wolves next, Solskjaer says “we can learn quite a few lessons from that game and we have to,” he said. “If we turn up and don’t perform to our level against a good team, we will not get the result we deserve.”