Paul Pogba and Jose Mourinho must finally start working together

Speaking ahead of Manchester United’s game against Swansea City, one thing was clear: Jose Mourinho had not spoken to France boss Didier Deschamps about Paul Pogba. There were reports that the two managers had enjoyed a chat about their best - but most frustrating - player as Pogba had struggled in recent months, and was reportedly unhappy. Mourinho denied that happened, and it’s fair to take anything that he says with a pinch of outright disbelief. Regardless of the truth, Pogba is a man who needs to change his performances for the better, and rapidly so.

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Pogba is 25. He has one World Cup coming in a few months, and then should be around for the next one in Qatar in 2022, when he will be 29. Two World Cups are not enough to be complacent about, and Pogba should realise that if he is to be the player that almost everyone wants him to be - technically brilliant in close spaces, dangerous from set pieces and from outside the box, and an inventive number 10, all at once - then things will need to improve. He has spent two years at Old Trafford threatening to be brilliant, but much more of the time he has risked finding a rut so deep that he will not be able to escape it.

At Juventus, when he played his best football, he had Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio to carry his water, and to set an example for him to follow. He had brilliant players all around him to turn six-out-of-10 performances into 8-out-of-10 showings because playing was made so easy. It does not mean Pogba was a bad player, merely that it was easier to showcase his talents on such a stage. Now, he has Scott McTominay and Nemanja Matic. It’s not a dreadful duo to play alongside, but the poor approach play and the awful defence behind him has thrown United’s season off course, yet again post-Ferguson.

Pogba and Mourinho are clearly at odds. Returning from injury, he has spent more time on the sidelines than his fitness requires, and he has been benched for big games in favour of the limited but willing McTominay. For all the admonishment of Luke Shaw as a headless clown unwilling to do what is required of a United player, the same criticisms have often felt valid for Pogba. But so far there is no credible suggestion that Pogba and Mourinho will not ultimately try to make the relationship work.

Pogba knows that one more transfer window should make United a more serious force in Europe, and jettisoning the useless Chris Smalling and Phil Jones will free him up to attack, especially if they bring in the two midfielders that his manager wants. Mourinho knows that a team of Alexis Sanchez, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku and Matic - in the single word of Hugh Abbot - should - be good enough to smash the dross that makes up most of the Premier League.

Against Russia, Pogba was back to something like his best. It was only Russia, and it was only a friendly, but Pogba has played worse teams recently and looked no better for it. Perhaps a few days away from the fug of the Premier League and the nonsense of the English press has perked him up. Perhaps seeing his friends from the international stage has jolted him back into action. Perhaps Deschamps has told him that if he wants to win the World Cup, he can’t count on anyone else to do it for him. Either way, whatever happened has helped Pogba.

With a few games left of the Premier League, Mourinho and Pogba have another choice to make. They can wait until the end of the season and the start of the next to work hard together, or they can work now in preparation. Swansea are not an exciting or competent side.

If Pogba wants to rediscover his form, now is an easy chance to do so. For Mourinho, he has evidence that Pogba is feeling himself again, and he can take the chance to make a positive step with his best player, or sit him on the naughty step again. The latter can't be ruled out - this is Mourinho, after all, now much more of a head teacher than a demon these days, but if the pair want to make the most of their careers, now is the time to make it work.