'Pogba will be gone in January' - Ince believes midfielder's Man Utd fate is sealed

The former Red Devils man sees no way back for the feuding Frenchman at Old Trafford, with his boss set to sell him over the winter

Paul Pogba’s “fate is completely sealed” at , says Paul Ince, with Jose Mourinho set to offload the troublesome World Cup winner in January.

Big things were expected of the international when he returned to Old Trafford from in a record-breaking £89 million ($117m) deal during the summer of 2016.

He has, however, seen his inconsistency spark regular waves of criticism, with his manager among those to have turned against him as two outspoken figures become embroiled in an unfortunate battle for supremacy.

Ince believes there can be only one winner, with -linked Pogba set to be moved on as United back their manager and prove that no one individual is bigger than the club.

The former Red Devils midfielder told Paddy Power: “If this was happening under Sir Alex, he’d have said one thing; ‘He’s going. Get rid of him now.’ Because there’s no chance he’d allow his team to become a joke because of Paul Pogba’s behaviour.

“I think his fate is completely sealed and he’ll be gone in January. There’s talk of Mourinho going before him, but I’d be disgraced if Ed Woodward allowed that to happen.

“If you do that, you’re essentially allowing a player to become bigger than the manager and the rest of his team.

“It’s time for Woodward to step up and back Jose.

“If he tells him that he’s upsetting the dressing room and still not playing at the level he should be, then he needs to back the manager and let him go. Pogba has caused far more trouble than he has good since returning to Man United.”

Ince added on a saga that would never have been allowed to unfold in his day, with United now in danger of shooting themselves in the foot: “There’s no way that Man United can compete with or Man City, or even win trophies, when they’ve got situations like this happening in the club.

“I can tell you what Fergie would’ve done, too. There’d have been a complete ban on Pogba speaking to all media. Because it’s obvious that he’s been feeding off the attention he’s been getting and that’s made it even worse.

“There’s not a chance in hell that he’d have allowed Pogba to speak to the press after that bad result against last week. Anything he does now is a media circus.

“If Pogba was 10/10 every week, playing out of his skin and consistently performing, then perhaps he’d have more grounds to come out and disrespect his club. But he’s not. He’s letting his personal vendetta with Mourinho take over his game.

“Not every player is going to like their manager all the time. It’s not about the dislike for each other, it’s about the fact you’re playing for a team and you should want to put that aside and win games.

“I said weeks ago that someone needed to put this situation to bed. No one is bigger than Manchester United, yet somehow Pogba thinks he is. There’s been an issue between them for a long time, and it’s been allowed to spiral out of control and get into the mess it’s in now.”

Paul Ince was speaking exclusively to Paddy Power News.