Stoke midfielder also detailed the game, pushing Pogba against leaving Old Trafford during his first game at the club. Paul Pogba could not force himself into Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United team because of poorly disciplined screens in the reserved side of the club, according to Darren Fletcher. The former United midfielder did some coaching with the second string of the club while Pogba tried to make his way in the game saying that they had to play the Frenchman forward further because as at that time, he was not fit for the center of the field.

“With the reserve team of Manchester United, I made a spell coaching, which included Paul Pogba, Ravel Morrison, Jesse Lingard, and many more talented players,” said Stoke midfielder on television during the night football coverage of 1-0 victory of Huddersfield over Fulham. “We played [Pogba] much higher up on the field in areas, those were for attacking and we felt he was the one who could really win our game. A combination of the fact that we felt he broke the discipline in the park middle like more of a central midfielder.”

And that was the bad discipline that apparently was due to Ferguson’s thoughts when a midfield selection crisis forced him to cobble jointly a side to a league game opposite Blackburn on the Eve of New Year 2011, which forced Pogba to decide to leave.

“It goes back to the famous game like we left Manchester United from the back when we lost to Blackburn 3-2,” continued Fletcher. Everyone was hurt really, all midfielders – Ji-sung Park, Phil Jones, and Raphael had magic in the midfield, and Paul was on the bench. I believe at the time that we did not think he was disciplined enough for the reserve so to jump into the first team in an important game – people can see the reason why we did not start him.”