Paul Pogba has said his relationship with Jose Mourinho is one of "happiness" and insisted ahead of Wednesday's Champions League game with Juventus that he has no regrets about leaving the Italian champions to rejoin Manchester United in August 2016.

Pogba will play in the Allianz Stadium Wednesday for the first time since leaving Juve for a then-world record fee of £89 million two years ago.

The French midfielder was signed by United to help accelerate the club's return to competitiveness in the Premier League and Champions League, but his second spell at Old Trafford -- Pogba left United for Juve in 2012 -- has seen the team make little progress under Jose Mourinho.

Pogba's relationship with the manager has been questioned, with Mourinho taking the vice-captaincy off the player earlier this season. But despite that incident and United's failure to compete for the biggest trophies, the 25-year-old insists he has no regrets over the move back to Manchester.

"For me, it didn't affect me [to lose the vice-captaincy]," Pogba said in Turin. "I'm still playing and I'm really happy to play.

"The manager is the one who chooses who is captain. Me, I was the second one after Antonio Valencia.

"If he takes [from] me the armband, it doesn't change anything for me. I just want to play, perform, that's my job and give my best for my team and for everybody, for the fans, for the club.

"It didn't really touch me, didn't affect me. Nothing changed really."

But did losing the responsibility of being vice-captain affect his relationship with Mourinho?

"If I ask you this question, how is the manager with other players, he will say he is the manager and I [am] the player," Pogba said. "I think [the] same way as everybody.

"I am just a player. I do what he tells me to do. He's the boss. He's the manager and I listen.

"I enjoy it, I just listen, and I do it with happiness."

Pogba added: "Choosing to come back to United was my choice. Juventus were playing [in the] Champions League and Manchester were playing [in the] Europa League.

"I knew, first of all, I wouldn't play [in the] Champions League and I was very happy. I made my choice and don't regret it all.

"I know Manchester, the last few years, are not being at [the] top, but I came back just to help the team and try to come back at the top and we are on the way.

"Obviously we want to win trophies, that's for sure. I'm a challenger, I want to win trophies.

"This is my third season here. I won three in my first season, but the season is long and it's not finished. We'll see at the end [what we win]."

United go into the Group H fixture on Wednesday sitting in second position after claiming just four points from their opening three games.

A win in Turin would give United a huge advantage over third-placed Valencia in the race to qualify. But Mourinho, who confirmed that striker Romelu Lukaku had missed the trip to Italy due to an injury which may also rule him out of Sunday's encounter with Manchester City, said that the Juve tie was not crucial to his team's prospects.

"Tomorrow is a big match and is big enough not to think about what is next," Mourinho said. "But the Juventus game is not a crucial match for us.

"I think that, independent of the result, our next matches against Young Boys and Valencia are the matches that are going to define the qualification in the second position or to go to Europa League.

"Tomorrow is a match we want to win, we want to compete. I think the best experiences for teams are against teams that are really the top and we have that opportunity tomorrow.

"But it doesn't matter what happens here or in Valencia -- there are two more matches to play and we can still qualify, so I think we will fight for qualification until the last match."

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Mark Ogden

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