What you need to know
- A tweet by Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba went viral
- The tweet was immediately deleted
- Tweeps claim it was meant to be a message to Jose Mourinho, the former manager of Manchester United
Dubai: A cryptic tweet by Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba on December 18, though immediately deleted, has gone viral on social media.
The image, which also went up on Instagram saw Pogba make an expression of skepticism with one eyebrow raised and a seeming smirk, titled “Caption This!”, followed by a series of hashtags.
According to Twitterati, the post was meant to be a backhanded good-riddance message to Jose Mourinho, the former manager of Manchester United.
Mix of reactions
The post went up less than an hour after Mourinho had been removed as manager following a poor season opening for the team and a tempestuous tenure overall. Though removed within a matter of moments, the damage had already been done, with several social media users expressing their displeasure over what was perceived disrespectful and immature behavior from Pogba. But, a few social media users also rushed to Pogba’s defense citing that this was a promotional post for Adidas football that had been scheduled previously.
Passing the ball
@MUnitedGirl tweeted: “WOW. @paulpogba grow up.” Tweep @EtniesJags echoed the sentiment with: “Paul Pogba is actually childish”
@Himanshu_1607 tweeted: “9.45am: Manchester United sack Jose Mourinho 10.30am: Paul Pogba posts this on Instagram 10.35am: Pogba deletes his post This is has some serious problems and need to be binned by Manchester United ASAP. Absolutely pathetic....”
@Elko_B took a pragmatic approach in his Twitter post: “Calm down with the @paulpogba tweet/Insta post. It was probably scheduled in by his management days ago. You can tell because it’s a sponsored post.”
@Evras felt that the direction of the online conversation needed to be more constructive. He tweeted: “The thing that is annoying me the most right now is why are people so focused on @paulpogba and Jose Mourinho. Let’s focus on rebuilding something solid instead of being in a playground. Doing this is only disrespecting the badge, from now we only need positivity. #ManUtd #MUFC”
Clash culmination
Last year did not see Pogba and Mourinho work on particularly good terms, especially with Mourinho removing Pogba from his position as vice-captain of Manchester United in September 2018. While Mourinho undoubtedly has had his fair share of spats with players, Pogba generally known for being vocal has maintained that former manager and him were on good terms. The overall reaction has pointed however, to this being Pogba’s snide adieu.
Despite social media users contacting Adidas to clarify if that the image was merely a promotional post, Paul Pogba is yet to make a public statement addressing the photo and the motivation behind its deletion.
The writer is a trainee with Gulf News Social Media Team
