Paul Pogba 'caused Man Utd star to leave club' before he advised Kobbie Mainoo to do same

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Former Manchester United star Paul Pogba could be held partially responsible for the club losing another star if Kobbie Mainoo leaves. The 33-year-old has said Mainoo shouldn't rule out a move away from his boyhood club if he feels overlooked.

Pogba, who is currently attempting to resurrect his career at Monaco, left United on a free transfer for the second time in 2022. And it was during that second spell that his presence played a role in Donny van de Beek deciding it was time to call it quits.

During a recent appearance on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Pogba was asked what advice he'd give Mainoo and appeared to suggest he should leave: "He played and he's such a talented, such a talented kid. He's still young.

"It's difficult. It's really difficult. It's the way how he feels. If he feels that, if he's good with the manager, if the manager really trusts him, because he's going to have all the clubs behind him, this is for sure.

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"But I don't know about his contract, because if he will be a free agent, it will be a different story, I think. But, you know, a kid like this, you know, that thinks that he can play and other people think that he can play, his managers pushing him, telling him, you can play in this team, why you don't play. That also put this in this kid and he's like, 'Yeah, I should leave.'"

Pogba went on to acknowledge that "maybe it's not the right decision" given how loved Mainoo is at Old Trafford. The Frenchman concluded by saying he simply wants what's best for the player, whom he enjoys watching.

Mainoo, 21, was infamously exiled by Ruben Amorim but has returned to the fold under his successor, Michael Carrick. The player is now believed to be close to signing a new five-year contract on much-improved terms, not long after an exit looked very feasible.

It wouldn't be the first time Pogba played a role in convincing someone to abort the United project. That's after Van de Beek's former agent, Guido Albers, confirmed the World Cup winner's role in seeing his former client exit United.

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Albers told Voetbal Primeur: "I saw the disappointment about the way he was treated by Manchester United, and he saw up close what I did to turn the situation around. But from the day he was not allowed to leave Manchester United again, it was final.

"In the Netherlands, Donny got all the appreciation, performed well and was super popular with the fans. At Manchester United, he then never played. The relationship between him and the club really cooled down badly.

"He had to compete against Paul Pogba, who reported late to the training camp, said sorry and was allowed to play again – in the place of a boy who was training 10 hours a day for eight weeks to show he was good enough.

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"I then had that disappointment thrown at me. I underestimated what not playing anymore did to him mentally. I should have looked earlier, 'How can I help him?'"

One can empathise with Van de Beek's frustrations and why he might have felt overlooked by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The Dutchman was sent on loan to Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt before leaving Old Trafford permanently for Girona in 2024.