Midfielder/force of nature Paul Pogba currently has the biggest clubs across Europe wagging their tongues, with Manchester United eager to re-sign the midfielder Alex Ferguson inexplicably allowed leave in 2012. Pogba has since starred at Juventus, become one of Europe's most sought-after midfielder through his unique and highly effective fusion of dainty technique with raw power. Alan Partridge's beautiful summary of Seve Ballesteros can be applied to Pogba (from 58 seconds below):
The Guardian are tonight reporting that Real Madrid are in pole position for his signature by virtue of the fact the Bernabeu is Pogba's preferred destination. Juventus don't want to lose Pogba, meaning the only situation in which they would countenance a sale is one in which United or Real Madrid meet the eye-watering asking price of €100 million (£84 million).
This would make Pogba the world's most expensive player, and while it would be slightly embarrassing for United to shell out this amount of money on a player they allowed leave for free, one feels a small thing like shame won't stop Mourinho from demanding his way.
The same report says that Pogba's wage demands are €300,000 (£250,000) per week, which would put him among the top players in the world, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney (!) the only players taking home that amount of money on a weekly basis.
United may be encouraged in their pursuit of the player by Mourinho's ability to cultivate relationships with football agents. Mourinho's extremely close relationship with Jorge Mendes is well-established - it is one of the primary themes of the remarkable The Special One: The Dark side of Jose Mourinho by Diego Torres - and a similar relationship seems to be bubbling between Mou and Pogba's agent Mino Raiola. Raiola has already brokered deals for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to United since Mourinho's arrival, and the Guardian reports that Raiola thinks that a move to United would be preferable for Pogba.
Preferable, presumably, because were he not to join Real Madrid this year, he could do so from United in three years, giving Raiola another bumper payday.
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