BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has consistently been critical of Man Utd ace Paulo Pogba in the past, but he has seemingly changed his tune this week.
As noted by the Manchester Evening News, Crooks has undoubtedly made a habit of criticising the French international in the past while also getting rather personal too with issues off the pitch coming under the microscope.
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Further, at times he has even mentioned Pogba when he hasn’t made his team of the week and seemingly has no relevance to the initial point, as noted in the report above when bringing him into a conversation about Man City stalwart Fernandinho.
With that in mind, it comes as quite the surprise to now hear Crooks make a passionate argument in defence of the 25-year-old, as he has essentially insisted that Man Utd would be making a mistake if they opted to sell him in a rather bizarre U-turn.
“Rumours that Jose Mourinho wants to sell Paul Pogba in the January window, if true, are madness. His sale must not be allowed,” he wrote in his BBC column.
“You should be bringing quality players to the club in January, not getting rid of the ones you’ve got. Quite simply his football is dull and he’s the wrong man in the wrong job, and if allowed to go unchecked the possible sale of Pogba will be bad for business as well.”
It’s unclear as to what has brought on this change of heart, as Pogba didn’t feature against Liverpool this past weekend and has been dropped to the bench in recent weeks against the likes of Young Boys, Arsenal and Fulham.
With that in mind, he hasn’t even had the opportunity to convince Crooks and his critics that he deserves a place in the Man Utd starting line-up, and yet the pundit has now launched a defence of him.
The timing certainly is baffling, but ultimately Crooks does have a point. Although he has struggled with form and consistency, the Frenchman remains United’s best midfielder on paper, and the sooner he is capable of showing that week in and week out, the better it will be for everyone to help the Red Devils salvage their campaign.
