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Mino Raiola hits out at Manchester United board and Gary Neville as he defends Paul Pogba


Paul Pogba has not featured for Manchester United since September (Picture: Getty)

Mino Raiola has hit out at Manchester United for blocking Paul Pogba’s move to Real Madrid and standing in the way of an iconic moment in French football history.

Pogba, 26, has been out of action with an ankle injury since the end of September and was due back earlier this week.

However, Pogba came down with a mystery illness after attending his brother’s wedding in France and played no part on Wednesday night as United beat Colchester to reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

Though some have speculated that Pogba’s absence is merely his way of pushing through a move to the Spanish capital, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer maintains that the World Cup winner is still central to his plans at Old Trafford.

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Pogba and Zinedine Zidane have made no secret of their desire to work with each other and the Frenchman’s agent, Raiola, has confirmed Madrid’s interest once again.

Raiola insists Pogba has been professional throughout the drawn-out transfer saga while the Red Devils have stood in the way of his dream move.

‘Paul wants to be successful and happy and wants to win prizes and he would love to do that with Manchester United,’ Raiola told The Telegraph.

‘Okay, there was big interest from Real Madrid and Manchester didn’t let him go.

Raiola says United are getting in the way of Pogba’s dream move (Picture: Getty)

‘We didn’t make a fuss about it and he didn’t make a fuss about it because I work in accordance with the player.

‘You know other players can bring things to extreme but Paul doesn’t like that. So you work differently.

‘There was an interest from Real Madrid but they didn’t let him go and I’m sorry, because I think that Paul being French then Zidane is an important factor in French football history.’

Pogba has made no secret of his interest in working under Zidane at Madrid (Picture: Getty)

Raiola has condemned former players such as Gary Neville who have been outspoken critics of Pogba in recent months.

‘Paul is not the guy I hear about from Neville and all the frustrated ex-players who say, “he should be ashamed of this, ashamed of that”,’ Raiola added.

‘Ashamed of what? He is working every day and doing his best. He’s not complaining that there is no Champions League.

‘Is he perfect? Nobody is. Is he also responsible for failure? He feels so. If you are in a team you are responsible for failure.’

Asked about Pogba’s future on Friday, Solskjaer replied: ‘He’s not getting sold in January.

‘He’s training, but he’s not been training with us for long. He’s training and that’s a step forward for us. Of course [I understand the attention], because he’s a fantastic player, a charismatic personality and for us we’re happy that he’s here.

‘It (the injury) was something that really needed sorting but I don’t think I should give you all the medical information but he’s now feeling good and getting better, it’s worked.

‘When he comes back play well, with a smile on his face and do what he did a year ago when I came here, Paul has been fantastic when he’s played for us and we’ve got one of the best players in the world, when he plays, gets fit, needs time to get fit, of course.

‘I hope so still let’s see how he feels, I’m not gonna push him, of course. What he feels, his ankle, we need him to be 100% fit. I can’t risk any setbacks on injury.

‘There are all these hypotheticals, I’ve just answered: he’s not gonna go.’

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