Graeme Souness reveals his reaction when he heard about Paul Pogba to Man City transfer rumours

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Graeme Souness has admitted he was astounded to hear that Manchester City were interested in a potential transfer swoop for Manchester United misfit Paul Pogba this summer.

The France international has endured a difficult time at Old Trafford, but he remains a world class talent on his day, and one imagines there’ll be plenty of interest in him due to being a free agent this summer.

BBC Sport claimed City held an interest in signing Pogba from their rivals, but Souness has unsurprisingly made it clear that he doesn’t think it would be a good move for Pep Guardiola and co.

Writing in his column for the Times, Souness hit out at the way Pogba has struggled to adjust to the demands of the Premier League, despite showing so much quality and energy when he won the World Cup with the French national team in 2018.

Paul Pogba is being linked with a surprise transfer to Manchester City

The pundit admitted he simply couldn’t see how Pogba would fit in with the kind of demands he’d have in Guardiola’s tactical set-up at City.

“Pogba has surprised me with his discipline and industry. He is not playing for Paul Pogba but as part of an overall plan. Too often in the past two seasons, the Manchester United man has played as if he is either on fast forward or slow rewind. In Russia, however, we have seen him tracking back with the same intensity that he shows when running forward,” Souness said.

“I wrote this in these pages nearly four years ago on the day of the World Cup final. Fair play to the France midfielder because later that Sunday he proved influential in helping his side become world champions. The problem is that we have seen that version of the player only intermittently in the Premier League since then.

“So you can imagine my reaction when I read yesterday that Pogba was being linked with a summer move to Manchester City. Astounded covers it. I won’t say it defies football logic because that commodity is in rare supply these days but such a signing would run counter to the way Pep Guardiola likes to run a football team.

Souness has long been a vocal critic of Pogba

“For a start he wants his players ready to put in the hard yards – and the hard yards in the big games when City are up against it. He wants them to have the discipline and selflessness to appreciate their role in the City gameplan and execute accordingly.

“Pogba probably has as much talent if not more than Bernardo Silva or Kevin de Bruyne but which two of this trio would you rely on most to carry out the manager’s instructions for the full 90? In which of Manchester United’s big games this season has Pogba shown up?”

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