Manchester United superstar Paul Pogba wants his manager to stick around Old Trafford.
Pogba, who turned 26 last week, has 11 goals and nine assists this season, a heavy portion coming in the time after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took the reins of the Premier League side.
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On French international team duty this week, Pogba says the big difference is happiness. The midfielder says the vibe is transmitted to the players by the 46-year-old Norwegian.
“He is a really happy coach that gave confidence back to the players,” he added. “This gave us the freedom to play and enjoy football again because maybe we lost that with the results that we had before.”
Solskjaer is certainly the favorite for the gig, and there’s a little wry humor in the fact that his crowning achievement was likely shepherding United past Paris Saint-Germain in Paris without the French superstar.
Maybe it’s the post-Alex Ferguson dry spell, but there’s something ubiquitous about the culture of United that transcends the “stop living in the past” mindset (Ahem, Zlatan). And maybe the idea of clutching the lore of a club is terrible for the players, but it’s working in the short-term. Will it run out if United is bounced from the Champions League by Barcelona and is staring at a silverware-free season which may be followed by a lack of UCL in 2019-20?