Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that football transfer fees have “gone insane”, as he closes in on a world record transfer for Paul Pogba.
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Man United, prior to Sunday’s 2-1 Community Shield win over Leicester City, announced that Pogba was set to undergo a medical.
Mourinho had hinted for several days that confirmation of the deal was close, and the Portuguese said Pogba was integral to the United team he hopes to build.
Pogba, who has won four Serie A titles and two Coppa Italias since joining Juve, is reportedly set to cost United €110million, a sum that eclipses the €100m paid by Real Madrid to sign Gareth Bale from Tottenham in 2013.
A reported initial £86 million bid was rejected by Juventus.
He is said to be the kind of player that new United head coach Jose Mourinho is looking for at the moment, which is a tall, strong, quick, tireless, and intelligent box-to-box footballer. The Old Trafford club received just £800,000 in compensation.
“As a player, you just want to be at a club where you can achieve everything you want to”.
Juventus has already spent most of the windfall from Pogba’s departure, signing Gonzalo Higuain from Italian rival Napoli for 90 million euros ($99 million) earlier this week. “If you want to be the best player in the world, if you go to Barcelona or Real Madrid you are in trouble because I don’t think the other two big guys will let you”. He had appeared in a total of 178 games in all competitions for the Old Lady and had scored 34 goals in the process as the team’s main box-to-box midfielder. At 23, he has the chance to make that position his own here over many years.
Pogba becomes Mourinho’s fourth signing as United manager following the arrivals of Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In the upcoming season, they will have to settle with playing in the Europa League.
It was thought the transfer was held up after Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, was in heated negotiations to iron out the fee he would receive for his work in the transfer.
Pogba’s expensive return to Old Trafford follows a bitter split.
“I’m really happy because it’s my first trophy”. He was a losing finalist in the 2015 Champions League as well as Euro 2016, as France lost to Portugal in Paris.
A picture later emerged on Twitter of a smiling Pogba posing in a United training kit with three apparent launderette workers.
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“Finally”, said Mourinho to BT Sport. Rather than give young Pogba a chance, Ferguson elected to bring Scholes, then aged 37, out of retirement to shore up his midfield.
