Manchester United legend blames himself for Paul Pogba departure

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Manchester United legend Paul Scholes believes his return from retirement is somewhat to blame for Paul Pogba deciding to leave the club, reports the Daily Express.

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The France international left Old Trafford on a free transfer to join Juventus in 2012. It has since seemed that letting the midfielder go was a massive mistake from then manager Sir Alex Ferguson, with the youngster going on to become a key part of the Bianconeri’s side. Now 22-years-old, he has 122 appearances for the Serie A giants and has scored 23 goals in the process.

In the meantime the Red Devils have struggled to replace Scholes’ creativity in their midfield. The former England international also believes that their original reliance on him was what spurred Pogba on to leave the club.

He said: “Given the choice, and on the right terms, United would rather have kept him than not. Would it have been different if I had not come back for that last 18 months? I think my return to the team, and the game time Paul got, was a small part of it.

“From United’s point of view, it is always difficult to tell just when a young footballer is going to mature into a first-class professional ready to play at the highest level, but the story of how Pogba slipped away from United has more than one strand to it.”

With it now looking likely that someone is going to have to pay a record transfer fee to take the youngster away from Turin according to the Express, it could well be a situation that quite literally costs United. Barcelona, Chelsea, and Real Madrid are all supposed to be interested in buying the centre-midfielder.

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