In what seems like day 1095 of the Paul Pogba saga, and today’s news say that Juventus are ‘confident’ of beating Real Madrid to the signing of the Manchester United midfielder.
Despite the transfer window not officially opening in Spain or Italy until July 1, the future of the disillusioned Frenchman seems to be a saga that has been running for quite some time.
According to the Mirror, Juventus are ‘confident’ of securing a deal to take Pogba back to Turin, with the 26-year-old having spent four successful seasons with the Italian champions before joining United in a then-world record £89m deal in 2016.
Not content with a talent-stacked midfield including the likes of Miralem Pjanic, Blaise Matuidi, Emre Can, Sami Khedira and Rodrigo Bentancur, and having already agreed to sign Aaron Ramsey from Arsenal, Juve want to re-sign Pogba as they bid for European success after years of domestic dominance.
???? Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici: “Pogba and Rabiot are two good players.
"Pogba we are very fond of, but he is a player of Manchester United.
"On Rabiot there are so many teams, we are not looking only at him.” pic.twitter.com/6GgTxpNIif
— GOAL (@goal) June 20, 2019
Juventus’ hopes will be encouraged by Sky Sports‘ report that news Pogba’s preference is for a return to the Italian champions, rather than linking up with Zinedine Zidane and Eden Hazard at Real Madrid.
The World Cup winner admitted whilst on international duty he wants a ‘new challenge somewhere else’, which could confusingly prove to be a return to a league where has already won four consecutive titles.
In another twist, the Telegraph say Pogba does in fact want to move to Madrid, however, he fears he will be priced out of a move by United’s demands.
United are reportedly sticking to their £160m price tag for the midfielder, which may be out of even Real’s reach after the Spanish giants significant summer spending so far, although that price tag does seem to vary depending which newspaper you read.
Makes sense for Manchester United to sell Paul Pogba to Juventus. As long as they get Cristiano Ronaldo back as part of the deal.
— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) June 19, 2019
The La Liga side have already spent close to £300m as they rebuild their squad following a disappointing campaign, and a deal for Pogba may prove difficult as they bid to comply with Financial Fair Play.
The club have struggled to find suitors for several of their unwanted high-profile stars, including the likes of Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, with any deal for Pogba likely to depend on their ability to raise funds from player sales.
We suspect there is a lot more juice for the media to squeeze out of this story…
Boost for United’s hopes of signing Bruno Fernandes
See also – Five of the Premier League’s most drawn out transfer sagas
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└⚠️ Are you sure you want to open all files of this type? pic.twitter.com/G8SD7dpjDw— Squawka (@Squawka) June 16, 2019
