Paul Pogba is free to start playing again from March after a doping ban and Arsenal are among some intriguing Premier League options to explore.
Former Manchester United midfielder Pogba was initially banned for four years after he tested positive for a testosterone not produced by the body.
After a lengthy appeal process, the 31-year-old has been successful in reducing his ban to 18 months through the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will be able to resume his career in March.
It was found that Pogba’s ingestion of the banned substance “was not intentional” and in interviews with Sky Sports, the Daily Mail and Italian newspaper Gazzetta – which reports state Juventus had neither ‘authorised’ nor were even aware of – he has expressed his desire to play again “on the pitch, any pitch”.
It won’t be in the Premier League, but let’s pretend it absolutely will be because of reasons. These clubs should take a punt.
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Arsenal
An ‘Arsene Wenger almost signed XI’ stalwart for good reason. It is difficult to think of a more Arsenal player who never played for Arsenal. Maybe it’s the Frenchness. Feels like it might be. If he didn’t spend his entire teenage years being referred to only as ‘the next Patrick Vieira’ by everyone including his family, then frankly what is the point?
A boyhood Gunner “obviously because of all the French players”, Pogba followed in the footsteps of his idol Thierry Henry only in terms of becoming a world champion and winding up Jose Mourinho. That dream pivot alongside Denilson or Francis Coquelin was never properly realised.
But Mikel Arteta’s penchant for a cast-off reclamation project could create something truly beautiful at the Emirates. While the obvious sticking point is that Pogba never played for Chelsea and thus won’t have even registered on the Arsenal transfer radar yet, he ticks most of the midfield boxes the manager has been trying to fill for years. And replacing Thomas Partey would be sensational revenge for what happened in November 2020.
But the most compelling argument is just how much fume a union between Pogba and Arsenal would generate.
A player people love to criticise for the most tenuous perceived negatives as his choice of hairstyle, joining a club still mocked by rivals and the punditocracy for flaws out of date by about a decade, who remain the victims of a conspiracy which can be traced to the very top of the game itself.
If Pogba struggled with his recent suspension then a lifetime ban for kicking the ball two yards away to delay a free-kick the opposition isn’t even ready to take will be devastating.
Bournemouth
Wenger, of course, was not “a football man” and thus might never have actually even heard of Pogba. But Graeme Souness would regale any manager who ever allowed him into their office after a game with tales of one of the finest talents ever to walk through the halls of Le Havre, the boy who would later become his entirely non-reciprocal arch-nemesis.
How do Bournemouth come into this? Why is Andoni Iraola about to extend the olive branch to Pogba? Well Poole-based Souness once declared himself “a Bournemouth supporter” and season-ticket holder during Eddie Howe’s second reign and even if that arrangement has not survived relegations and manager changes, it is safe to assume he still holds the Cherries in high regard and would wince at having someone so “lazy and dishonest” patrolling the midfield.
After recently insisting he would not sign “wasted talent” Pogba even on a free, Souness repeated one of his previous claims that “the worst thing that happened to him was winning the World Cup,” adding: “He would have been a young man, 23?”
Pogba was 25 in 2018 but who’s counting? Not Souness, who thought that Wenger inherited a 22-year-old Dennis Bergkamp despite the forward very specifically being 27 when the Frenchman was appointed manager.
Aston Villa
“The dream of the World Cup is there, but Deschamps hasn’t opened the door for anyone. It’s up to me to open it – he told me to work,” Pogba said during one of his many interviews this week.
Pogba was forced to miss the 2022 edition with the injury which significantly restricted his playing time in the last full season before his doping ban. Without him, France ventured to the final in Qatar before bravely falling in a penalty shootout.
It seems only fair that if Pogba wishes to fight his way back into the France side in time for the World Cup, he does it while staring a hole in the back of the man who snatched it from Les Bleus in the first place. He and Emi Martinez might need to be separated at the end of every training session for a couple of years but it could work.
Everton
Imagine, back around 2017, being told that an Everton midfield would one day contain Pogba and Dele being coached by one-man salvation army Sean Dyche. And then remember that the most unrealistic part of that scenario is that Abdoulaye Doucoure wouldn’t be keeping both players out.
For all their faults and foibles, Everton should be commended in their patient and understanding handling of Dele. Their training and medical facilities remain available to the 28-year-old despite his Goodison Park contract expiring in the summer, and while there is a view to a new permanent deal further down the line, the current focus is simply on restoring the player to full health in all aspects.
Pogba would benefit from a similar approach wherever he ends up. The hope would be that Juventus afford such time and empathy to a player whose last appearance would have come 18 months ago by the time he is eligible to feature again. He is “willing to give up money” for the chance to represent The Old Lady again and that opportunity should be afforded.
The context is obviously different to Dele’s – Pogba has accepted “some responsibility” for his lay-off because he “didn’t triple check” a prescribed supplement – but the circumstances are the same: an absurdly gifted footballer hoping to prove his worth again after a sustained period out.
Manchester United
Only joking.
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