CUT-PRICE POGBA
United face selling £89m record signing for £50m
MANCHESTER UNITED might be forced to accept a hefty loss on Paul Pogba if they sell their record signing this summer, with Real Madrid valuing him at no more than £50million.
There is an acceptance at the club and in Pogba’s camp that it would be in everyone’s interests for the Frenchman to be sold at the end of another disappointing season.
Pogba has played just 71 minutes since September due to a recurring injury in his right ankle. He is up to a month away from full fitness and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was last week unable to offer a categorical assurance that he will play for United again. Bids in excess of £150m could have brought United to the negotiating table last summer but the 26-year-old’s market value has declined because he will only have a year left on his contract in July.
United can extend it by 12 months, but there is a feeling that they would do well to recoup the £89m he cost to sign from Juventus in 2016 — a world record at the time.
The combination of his prolonged absence and the storm being whipped up by his outspoken agent Mino Raiola — as he tries for the third summer window running to get his client out of Old Trafford — could drive the price down further.
Madrid were thought to be favourites to sign Pogba after boss Zinedine Zidane targeted his French compatriot but a move to the Bernabeu looks unlikely.
Real president Florentino Perez’s priority is to prise Neymar or Kylian Mbappe away from Paris Saint-Germain.
Juventus are also limited financially and would have to sell first or offer a player in a deal — as they did last summer when trying to swap Paulo Dybala for United’s Romelu Lukaku, who joined Inter Milan instead.
Speaking after Monday’s win over Chelsea, former United players Gary Neville and Roy Keane predicted that Pogba would leave the club at the end of the season.
Pogba’s brother Mathias said yesterday: ‘Everyone knows that Paul wants to leave Manchester United — he wants to play Champions League football and win titles. We all know that won’t happen at United. We will see what happens this summer.’
Raiola said recently that Pogba might not be able to ‘ escape’ Old Trafford and also responded to comments from Solskjaer by saying that the player was not a ‘prisoner’.
He struck a more conciliatory tone yesterday, perhaps mindful that he could be damaging the player’s prospects of a move.
‘I certainly did not intend to have any disrespect to the club or towards (Solskjaer),’ said the agent.
‘Paul has a contract with Manchester United and wants to get back fit as quickly as possible to be a positive factor until the end of the season.’
THE FUNERAL of former United goalkeeper Harry Gregg will take place in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, on Friday. Gregg, who heroically rescued team-mates and passengers in the 1958 Munich air disaster, died on Sunday aged 87.