“I’m just glad we have a top class player at the club, and one who is young enough to play through his best years at Old Trafford”.
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Hmm, lost me on that one Paul, but maybe it had more to do with his former employer trying to squeeze the last penny from United’s purse.
The 53-year-old came to Old Trafford with four “fundamental” profiles in mind and the board duly delivered through the capturing of Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba.
“Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer broke even after two or three years just from kit sales”, according to Drut.
It was very much a case of old friends reunited as David de Gea welcomed back Paul Pogba following his world record switch to Manchester United. He fits very well into Mourinho’s philosophy of football and will do well at United.
In addition to kit sales, the marketing potential of the player known as “la Pioche” emerges as the other main income source for United.
The Portuguese is box office, whereas his predecessor, the hapless Louis Van Gaal, never really fitted in and his pre and post match comments in pigeon English were often risible; something in the manner of when former England manager (I know, we can pick ’em, can’t we?) Steve McClaren appeared to put on a fake Dutch accent when coach of FC Twente.
United’s board members are counting on that.
The value of a player is dependent on his talent, the expected strengthening of the team, his age and of course his resale value.
In short, the club seeks to use Pogba’s image rights to attract new sponsors, building revenue while at the same time snatching market share from sporting financial rivals such as Real and Barcelona who exploit Ronaldo and Messi as their banners.
With Martial, Rooney and Mkhitaryan making runs around him and stretching the play, coupled with Marcus Rashford on the bench who will be important again this year, the Swede has all the tricks in the book and the vision to pull the strings for United and become a figurehead in their success.
The move to bring Pogba back started about a year after he left the Red Devils. “That’s why we may have crossed the £100m bar for the first time”.
‘We have people like [Morgan] Schneiderlin and [Ander] Herrera also – players with experience in the Premier League but after that we have No 10’s.
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The outlay of the Big Six dwarves the league’s average spend per club of 23 million pounds, while only four sides have turned a profit to date this summer.
