Thursday 27 September 2018 08:43, UK
Jose Mourinho may insist there are "no problems" between himself and Paul Pogba but video footage from Manchester United training on Wednesday morning appeared to paint a different picture.
The strained relationship between the pair was visible for all to see as Pogba received a frosty greeting from his manager, before having an apparently exasperated discussion with Mourinho.
The club's record signing has been informed he will never captain United again while Mourinho is in charge, after saying the team needed to attack more following Saturday's 1-1 draw with Wolves.
With plenty of questions now being raised about Pogba's future at Old Trafford, Sky Sports News reporter James Cooper has attempted to provide some insight into how this situation has come about and what it means for both men's future at the club.
The problems stem from the performances of Pogba towards the end of last season.
He was a substitute in the two games against Sevilla when United exited the Champions League - clearly the manager was not happy about the performances he was getting out of a player he paid a world-record transfer fee for.
Then he goes to the World Cup, plays brilliantly and Mourinho talks about that as being the real Paul Pogba.
Tensions have been growing since then. What is different now is the games are over in many ways and this one is out in the open.
Mourinho broke the world transfer record to bring Pogba to Manchester United - one of four marquee signings in his first transfer window.
He brought a player in who had done brilliantly at Juventus and has played brilliantly for his country but he has not done it for Manchester United on a consistent basis. Most Manchester United fans would agree with that. That is where the frustration lies.
The other thing to say about the situation is the fragile nature of things at Manchester United is there for all to see.
There were problems behind the scenes in the games against Brighton and Tottenham.
Things seemed to be improving after the loss to Spurs. United were building momentum with three consecutive wins. I saw Pogba last week and he seemed relaxed and happy.
Now, suddenly, we are in a situation where Pogba will not be captain at United while Mourinho is there. Things have changed quickly and that relationship has clearly broken down.
Ed Woodward knows he has to back his manager. The club want success and they have identified Mourinho as the person to do that.
He has already won three trophies, though last season was less of a success and he said going into this season it was going to be difficult.
On the other side of things, they have spent an awful lot of money to bring Pogba back to the club after he left under a cloud.
But the simple answer is Mourinho has to be the one that holds the power.
I think at the moment most United fans would be in Mourinho's corner because they have not seen the best of Pogba - there has been a lot of posturing, a lot of haircuts but they have not seen the leader and the world-class player they were expecting.
It is clearly a problem. Pogba is a person United thought they could build a team around and that has not really happened.
He did not play against Derby County on Tuesday night and it raises question marks as to whether he will play in the coming weeks, with a series of tough games coming up, starting against West Ham on Saturday.
There is a wider problem here as well. We saw on Saturday Mourinho laid into his players, saying they lacked the intensity and aggression that was required. He mentioned it again in his programme notes last night, saying lessons had not been learned by some of the players.
Then incredibly, after the defeat in the shootout, he talked about how United "were going to be in trouble" when Eric Bailly and Phil Jones had to take penalties.
It makes you wonder about his motives. Mourinho knows the power of his words and it might just show that it is not just a difference of opinion between him and Pogba.
There might be something more sinister here. Perhaps Mourinho is not looking for a way out of Manchester United but certainly an excuse to maybe make his point.
That certainly seems to be what he is doing at the moment, making his point, and it may be that Pogba has provided him with an excuse to make that point.
There is clearly a lot of unhappiness on his part that he was not given the money he wanted to spend this summer.
Mourinho wanted a centre-half but the problem from the board's perspective is they did not think Harry Maguire was worth the fee that Leicester City were talking about.
They would have broken the record for Raphael Varane from Real Madrid if they had encouragement from Madrid but that did not happen.
So I think there is that frustration there from Mourinho that he has not been backed.
But equally, I think Ed Woodward probably looked at Mourinho and said, 'Look, you brought in (Victor) Lindelof and (Eric) Bailly - you have got to get rid of those players and raise some money or make do with what you've got.'
But, in the back of his mind, when Mourinho came to Manchester, he saw it as a battle with Pep Guardiola.
At the moment, you have to say for the first time in his career he is almost in a no-win situation. He has not got either the resources, the players or the strategy to win.
Clearly it is a difficult situation when you consider Pogba is such a big presence in the Manchester United dressing room, a player they spent an awful of money on and, like it or loathe it, he is seen as a leader.
I do not think there will be a dressing room split but I think the wider issue from this is that public fall-outs and public criticisms of players are happening all too frequently.
Mourinho said Manchester United faced a difficult season. It is certainly playing out that way. I think his difficulties at the moment are perhaps, not only of his own making, but also within his own dressing room.
I know a lot of people are saying, the simple solution would be for Manchester United to sell Pogba. I think they could get their money back and perhaps a bit more but the issue is that we are in September right now and they cannot sell him until January. Even then, they may not be able to move him because he has played Champions League football.
Also they may not be able to get a similar replacement, so we are at a kind of impasse at the moment.
A further question is whether the board - having sanctioned that amount of money from the Glazer family - would get rid of Pogba. What sort of message that would send out?
But it does feel like this is a pantomime or a circus that is gathering momentum.
It is not a helpful role. He has been quiet over the last couple of weeks but the last time he put his head above the parapet he had a go at Paul Scholes, saying he would not recognise a leader, even if Winston Churchill was in front of him.
He knows he has got an asset in Pogba, he knows Manchester United paid an awful lot of money for him and he knows there are other clubs in Europe that would be interested in taking Pogba. He is in a position of strength.
What is probably frustrating for him is the window is not open until January and he has a player who is clearly unhappy and who has a rather strained relationship with the manager who brought him to the club.
Clearly, you have got two of the biggest characters at Manchester United on either side of the dressing room - Mourinho in the red corner, if you like, and Pogba in the blue corner. That is not a healthy situation.
There are loads of issues here but one thing for certain is that this is going to take a long time to sort out and it will play out very publicly. These have been the opening shots. Something clearly has to give.
But any football person will tell you the manager is the key person at a football club and at the moment the manager is Mourinho.
