Dean Saunders says Man United star Paul Pogba should shut down his Instagram… and Jamie O’Hara calls him a ‘dinosaur’ - (2022)

Former Liverpool striker Dean Saunders believes Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba should shut down his Instagram until he has retired from playing football.

Pogba, the France international, is one of the most marketable footballers in the world and his social media followings mirror such popularity, with 36.1million and 6.93million people following him on Instagram and Twitter respectively.

He is also remarkably active on social media, and has previously been criticised for his use of social media amid on-pitch struggles since returning to Old Trafford in 2016.

One of the more famous incidents involved the January 2017 release of his own emoji, which Pogba revealed on Twitter a couple of days before putting in a nightmare performance in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

This was one of many incidents which has led to accusations Pogba cares more about his brand than his performances, accusations which have renewed over recent weeks given the midfielder’s prevalence on social media amid rumours he wants to quit United.

While his agent, Mino Raiola, is speaking out about Pogba’s wish to leave Old Trafford this summer, the player himself has been cataloguing his summer trip through China, Japan and the United States on Instagram.

And Saunders, who played for Derby, Liverpool and Aston Villa throughout a 19-year career, has told Pogba to QUIT social media because of the way he uses it.

“Shut your Instagram down,” Saunders said on the Final Word on talkSPORT. “You’re on £300,000-a-week – you don’t need the money!

“Shut it down and open it when you’ve finished playing football, because you don’t use it the right way.

“If you use Twitter and Instagram the right way, and say positive things like, ‘great win today’ and ‘thanks for the support’… anything other than that, anything negative or any innuendos like they throw out now, is damaging.

“So shut it down, and open it when you’ve finished playing football. You’re a footballer.

“You’re under contract to play for Man United and you’re damaging the club.”

Ironically, Saunders’ opinion did not go down too well on social media, with many people accusing him of living in the past and being outdated given the state of the modern day game.

And one person who called out Saunders on Twitter was Jamie O’Hara, the former Tottenham and Wolves midfielder and frequent talkSPORT guest.

He wrote: “That’s a dinosaurs opinion, need to get in modern era Deano.”