Having arrived during the Frenchman’s final season with the club, De Gea initially struggled to adapt, but is now regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world and his continued presence, along with the signing of Pogba, mean Jose Mourinho’s side are in formidable shape ahead of their Premier League opener with Bournemouth.
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Former Manchester United star Andy Cole says that Jose Mourinho’s transfer business reminds him of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign at the club.
Pogba completed his prolonged transfer from Serie A champions Juventus to United on Tuesday in world-record deal worth £89million and despite the price for a player who had previously starred in the club’s academy, Cole was delighted to see the 23-year-old France worldwide sign. Of course you are going to miss that!
Some United fans hope Mourinho switches to a 4-3-3 formation to accommodate the £89million midfielder, however Mourinho suggested he could continue with a midfield duo behind a playmaker.
The former Red Devil told the official Manchester United website: “Yeah I have been impressed, you have got to be”.
“Wow, the fee, well that is how football is nowadays”. Football grosses so much money. If you want to buy a player and they say they want £80million or £90million then you have to pay it.
Mourinho had earmarked Pogba as one of four key men he wanted to sign this summer, alongside other new boys Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“We don’t [didn’t] have what I used to call the second midfield player”.
“You can’t prevent it so I guess you just have to embrace it and do as well as you can in that environment”.
The move has been a number of years in the making and may have happened sooner had it not, in part, been due to manager-related issues. I don’t know if it was a numbers thing, to get bodies in at a certain time.
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Meanwhile, Mourinho is willing to sell up to 10 players in order to trim his squad, with Juan Mata, Adnan Januzaj and Bastian Schweinsteiger the most high-profile.
