Mourinho confirms Pogba return but warns 'no player is bigger than the club'

Manager Jose Mourinho confirmed that Paul Pogba will return this weekend when Manchester United take on West Ham, adding that his relationship with the French midfielder is “good” after an apparent disagreement earlier this week.

He added that Manchester United’s reputation is his main concern.

“No player is bigger than the club,” Mourinho said.

The pair had what appeared to be a heated confrontation during Wednesday’s training session over an apparent video that Pogba posted on his Instagram account, leading to speculation about a divide between the two.

But a report suggested the incident was a miscommunication. Mourinho seemed ready to move on from the saga and confirmed on Friday that Pogba will be reinserted into the first team after missing Tuesday’s League Cup defeat to Derby County.

“I am really happy with his work this week,” he said, according to Simon Stone of BBC Sport. “He trained really well. The team needs good players. He is a good player. The team needs the personality to play. He has. He plays tomorrow.”

It’s unknown if Wednesday’s episode had anything to do with Mourinho’s decision a day before to strip Pogba of vice-captaincy duties. The Portuguese manager said the decision was made after “weeks of analyzing”.

“Paul and the other players in the squad know in detail the reason why myself and my coaching staff, we decide to do that,” he said, according to Jamie Jackson of The Guardian. “I always analyse a player as a player and when a player is captain I analyse the player by the player and the captain perspective.

“After weeks of analyzing and changing opinions with my coaching staff we made the decision Paul is just a player and not a captain.”

Mourinho shot down suggestions that the incident was disruptive and said he will not change the way he conducts himself during training when cameras are present.

“Disruptive? I think for you was amazing because you made a story, an incredible story out of 15 minutes of open training session, maybe is your fault (Karen Shotbolt, the press officer), we should have 15 minutes of training session open because what happened the other day happens many days, conversations with players I have many, many, many times,” he said, according to the Manchester Evening News.

“Was not the case but loud critic, loud instruction happens every day, coaching is about that but you make story about it, so I’m happy the rules are only 15 minutes once a month and situations like that are not going to change, there is no chance you will watch a session.”