UNITED How Agent P lured Lukaku to United!
PAUL Pogba nicknamed himself ‘Agent P’ after persuading his best mate Romelu Lukaku to join him at United.
And now his tactics have been revealed by the big Belgian.
The pair spent the summer together in Los Angeles where Pogba, along with Jose Mourinho, persuaded Lukaku to move to Old Trafford instead of returning to Stamford Bridge.
But Pogba started his mission long before the summer as he pulled out all the stops to get his mate into a red shirt.
Speaking about Pogba’s influence Lukaku said: “I spoke with Paul a lot, obviously. We spent our holiday together and he said: ‘What do you want to do?’
“I told him I was thinking a lot about signing for United, something was telling me to do it. I live near Manchester so, when I was coming to the city centre, I would drive past Old Trafford and ask my mates what they thought. Me and Paul, we’d go to the city to have dinner and he’d drive past Old Trafford on purpose.”
Despite having the option to go back to Chelsea, Lukaku knew as soon as he joined up with his new team-mates on tour in America he had made the right decision.
The 24-year-old said: “The first thing I noticed when I came to the meeting room on my first day with the team, the manager had a meeting and you just felt something special.
“Loads of the players were saying that this group is quite special. We’re all young, hungry players.
“In training, everyone wants to be the best, everyone wants to win, so to be part of a team like that is great.
“Players like Marcus (Rashford), Jesse (Lingard), Micki (Henrikh Mkhitaryan), Juan (Mata), Ander (Herrera) – players like that are hungry to win trophies and it’s time for us.
“We need to work hard – the manager has a masterplan and we’re here to follow it. Hopefully it’s going to take us to the top.
“That’s what I came here for [trophies]. Manchester United, for me, equals trophies. The biggest club in the world equals trophies.”
Having watched the Reds win everything there is to win over his lifetime, Lukaku is looking forward to making his own mark in the club’s history and he has already worked out how to better his goal tally from last season.
“The key to me scoring more every year is that I work during the off-season on my negative points,” he said.
“I don’t think I will peak now. In your career, you always have obstacles, but you need to make sure you have the consistency to go with it.
“I’m playing for the biggest club in the world, so I need to play like one of the best players and make sure that my teammates win.”