Paul Pogba responds to recent criticism and transfer speculation 

What's the story?

Paul Pogba has responded to the recent spat between former Manchester United player, Paul Scholes, and his agent, Mino Raiola, in a promotional tweet for Addidas posted on his account late last night.

In case you didn't know...

The saga between Scholes and Raiola began last Sunday when the former United midfielder gave a scathing criticism of Pogba's performance during the Red Devils' 3-2 defeat against Brighton. Scholes was working as a pundit for Optus Sport and questioned the Frenchman's consistency, saying:

“There’s [a] lack of leaders in the team. That’s why we thought Pogba might be the ideal candidate to be that leader but he wasn’t there tonight. He had another really poor game. He’s so inconsistent.”

Pogba himself admitted he had a poor game at the AMEX Stadium, saying during a post-match interview that his attitude throughout the match was poor:

“We did not deserve to win. The attitude we had was not like wanted to beat them. They had more hunger than us. I put myself first, my attitude was not right enough. We keep trying and pushing, and it is going to be a big lesson for us.”

On Tuesday, Pogba's agent, Mino Raiola responded to Paul Scholes' post-match analysis with a harsh Twitter tirade against the United legend. Raiola questioned Scholes' own leadership qualities and said the former United man feared being forgotten.

His astonishing rant went on as he told Scholes that he should apply for the Manchester United Director of Football position and sell Pogba.

Some people need to talk for fear of being forgotten. Paul Scholes wouldn’t recognize a leader if he was in front of Sir Winston Churchill. @paulpogba

— Mino Raiola (@MinoRaiola) August 21, 2018

Paul Scholes should become sports director and advise Woodward to sell Pogba. Would be sleepless nights to find Pogba a new club @paulpogba

— Mino Raiola (@MinoRaiola) August 21, 2018

The heart of the matter

Mino Raiola has been pushing for a move for his client all summer. A few weeks ago, reports emerged that he had even flown to Manchester in an effort to convince United to sell the French midfielder to Barcelona.

However, nothing came of his visit to the northwest of England and Pogba was named as captain by Mourinho for the first two games of the season. The United manager even insisted that there was never any question about selling Pogba and their relationship is fine.

In light of the recent spotlight on his performances and future at Old Trafford, Pogba has responded with a simple message via a promotional tweet on his Twitter account. In the tweet, Pogba is sitting with his fingers to his lips with an emoji at the bottom of the tweet making the same sign.

🤫#SOBAKOV @adidasfootball #heretocreate pic.twitter.com/C5FRFcHYWM

— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) August 23, 2018

What's Next?

The somewhat ambiguous message could be Pogba silencing his critics or it could be aimed at his outlandish agent. Either way, the best thing that the midfielder can do at the moment is let his performance on Monday against Tottenham do all the talking.