Adidas’ media savvy efforts to finally unveil the world’s most expensive footballer, Paul Pogba, as a Manchester United player were foiled last night when a United fan tweeted an image of a smiling Pogba standing in front of washing machines with the club’s laundry ladies. United made the announcement in a one-line statement on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016 under the hashtag “Pogback”.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his debut and scored the winning goal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan came on and, biggest of all, Pogba was announced as being on his way back to Old Trafford. “Manchester United is the club for me, where I can accomplish all my dreams when it comes to football”, confessed the 23-year-old.
Unsurprisingly, such a large transfer fee has not gone unnoticed by United’s Premier League rivals.
The midfielder, who cost United a record breaking £100m to sign from Juventus, has been welcomed back to the club’s training ground by former youth level team-mate and Dean of Dab University Jesse Lingard.
The 23-year-old midfielder was photographed arriving at Carrington with his mother, Yeo Moriba, following a flight from Nice to Manchester. La Liga is also a great championship, but the Premier League is different, more direct, more contact.
When then asked what he felt he could achieve in his career, Pogba said: “I want to win the league for the first time with United, because I hadn’t won the league when I left”.
“I am always optimistic, and this is exciting”, Blind said.
“When you play for United you have to have competition”, he told MUTV. For all the money that has been spent, we’ve not been able to keep Grade A players or incentivise them to come here in the first place. Now it’s time to go back and forward, Old Trafford here I come!
United has finished seventh, fourth and fifth in the post-Ferguson years, but is one of the title favorites this season.
Analyzing Juventus’ balance sheet we notice that Juventus did not register Pogba’s signing as a free agent, but they added Raiola’s € 6 million commission to the player’s price. Pogba joined Juventus from Manchester for about $1 million.
Ferguson was unhappy with Pogba’s attitude in the last months of his contract, and didn’t play the Frenchman even during an injury crisis in the team’s midfield.
While Mourinho feels the “unbelievable” Pogba “has everything”, he has stressed it may take time before the 23-year-old France worldwide is fully firing in the United side and has vowed to “protect” him if needed.
Mourinho also had a message for managers like Arsene Wenger and Juergen Klopp of Liverpool, who have suggested United was paying too much for Pogba.
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The France worldwide revealed that he spoke with teammates who had played under Mourinho, and expects the Portuguese to help him improve as a player. “So at Man United, it can happen”.
