United in need of a rethink

Jose Mourinho's Manchester United soap opera came to an abrupt end on Tuesday, but not before his arch-nemesis Paul Pogba interrupted the closing credits with a smirking aside to camera, accompanied by the message "Caption this".

Former United midfielder Gary Neville summed up what many fans were thinking when he entered the Instagram caption competition with the spiky reply: "You can do one as well."

Neville's potshot was the sort of thing his former boss Alex Ferguson might have barked just before he kicked a boot in David Beckham's direction during a particularly tense dressing-room dressing-down in 2003, famously grazing the limelight-loving midfielder's eye.

By the summer of that year, "Golden Balls" was a goner, with Ferguson content to let brand Beckham boost jersey sales at Real Madrid, having concluded his once-prized asset had let his "application level drop from its traditionally stratospheric level", as the Scot put it in his autobiography.

Beckham was not the only big name to fall victim to Ferguson's ruthless streak, with the likes of Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy all unceremoniously shown the door after being deemed detrimental to the manager's authority.

How Mourinho would have loved to been able to wield similar power and overrule United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward's decision to keep the underperforming Pogba, not to mention his sulking compatriot, striker Anthony Martial.

Much of the criticism leveled at Mourinho during his admittedly mediocre reign has centered on his inability to coax the best from World Cup winner Pogba. The Portuguese boss has generally been portrayed as a surly and irrational figure in the whole drama; the benched Pogba cast as the gifted midfielder wronged by his manager's foolhardy faith in his defensive principles.

Ferguson, though, it seems shared Mourinho's distrust of the France international. While acknowledging the player's ability during his first stint at United, the two-time Champions League winner was far from impressed when the then 19-year-old left for Juventus.

"I don't think he showed us any respect at all," Ferguson said of Pogba's exit at the time. "I'm quite happy that if they (players) carry on that way, they're probably better doing it away from us."