Build Up: Pogba to United

? reports saying it's a done dealio in the next 48 hrs

some Madrid fans got excited over some vague comments from Zidane for a while but that was about it

I don't think Perez told me he was interested in Pogba. This is all United or no one.

What irritates me is that Real Madrid hasn't even submitted ONE bid yet, hasn't even sat down with Juventus to negotiate or even thought about it, didn't even bother to show serious interest in the player, and yet those sorry excuse for journalists are desperately and incessantly trying to squeeze us into the picture.

Journalist Code of Ethics, oh yeah baby...

I have one question. Let's think from Pogba's perspective. Why would he want to leave Juventus? Most of us think Juventus have assembled a fine squad. He is well settled there playing regularly in a position and system that suits him. He has a decent chance to win the UCL soon. He is young and it's time for him to concentrate on growing as a footballer. Juve would probably agree to increase his wages to some extent. Then why not stay put?

messixaviesta wrote:I have one question. Let's think from Pogba's perspective. Why would he want to leave Juventus? Most of us think Juventus have assembled a fine squad. He is well settled there playing regularly in a position and system that suits him. He has a decent chance to win the UCL soon. He is young and it's time for him to concentrate on growing as a footballer. Juve would probably agree to increase his wages to some extent. Then why not stay put?

He is tripling his wages if reports are to believed.

From €4.5M NET to €13M NET.  In theory,  We could offer €6.5-€7M NET but that's still way short.

Maybe he wants the visibility of EPL and make more money as a result with his dabs  than fight for the CL with his current club. He is arguably going to be one of the biggest stars in a heavily popular league.



This is a great move for him financially but not so great move on  a sporting level. I expect him to change clubs again in 3 years time as long as Raiola is around with him.

It may happen... but Di Marrzio may get some egg on his face here. Pogba has been pretty darn clear that he won't make a decision until he returns from vacation. I don't know when that is... but I don't think it's this weekend. It's Raiola's job to get an executable deal ready, which is what he's doing. Will Madrid jump in? Zidane seems to think there's a chance. A classic move in any arena is to wait and see what your competition's final bid is and then either match or go over it... it's ruthless. But then again, not a lot of goodwill left between Man U and Real Madrid after the De Gea debacle.

S... I think even sportively it's a rational move.  I don't think Pogba thinks that Serie A is much of a challenge for Juve or for him personally.  He's won everything he can in that league.  So he's going to a club where he was a youth teamer where he will be personally challenged to lift the club.  

Bringing back a big club to glory again is as much a sporting project than going to a stacked team to try and accumulate as much trophies as possible.  Different...  but still valid.  I think it's admirable tbh since it's his youth club. There's more than just the money there although the money is clearly the clinching factor.

Real Madrid and Man U are clearly his two top choices anyhow.  Either way, he'll end up being happy.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Are you trying to say with our stacked squad we won't dominate this season?

Then whatever weaknesses we have will be addressed next Summer and boom, we're on par with Madrid baby.

Yeah, especially with so many world beaters in the team. Anthony better than Messi MARTIAL, *bleep* his name you know who, Kolo and Yaya reborn and Wooney the 60 years old white Pele

Would you trade Martial for Messi ?

sportsczy wrote:S... I think even sportively it's a rational move.  I don't think Pogba thinks that Serie A is much of a challenge for Juve or for him personally.  He's won everything he can in that league.  So he's going to a club where he was a youth teamer where he will be personally challenged to lift the club.  

Bringing back a big club to glory again is as much a sporting project than going to a stacked team to try and accumulate as much trophies as possible.  Different...  but still valid.  I think it's admirable tbh since it's his youth club.  There's more than just the money there although the money is clearly the clinching factor.

Real Madrid and Man U are clearly his two top choices anyhow.  Either way, he'll end up being happy.

Meh, his top choice would've been Barca, they wanted him too; but he became too expensive for his own good.
The reason he's rejoining Utd is money and absolutely nothing else. 13m net wages, that's double what Bayern's top earners get. Double. For a 23 year old.
No other club was going to pay him that, not Barca, not even Madrid.
What he is underestimating is how much Mourinho has the capability to ruin his career.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

sportsczy wrote:S... I think even sportively it's a rational move.  I don't think Pogba thinks that Serie A is much of a challenge for Juve or for him personally.  He's won everything he can in that league.  So he's going to a club where he was a youth teamer where he will be personally challenged to lift the club.  

Bringing back a big club to glory again is as much a sporting project than going to a stacked team to try and accumulate as much trophies as possible.  Different...  but still valid.  I think it's admirable tbh since it's his youth club.  There's more than just the money there although the money is clearly the clinching factor.

Real Madrid and Man U are clearly his two top choices anyhow.  Either way, he'll end up being happy.

Meh, his top choice would've been Barca, they wanted him too; but he became too expensive for his own good.
The reason he's rejoining Utd is money and absolutely nothing else. 13m net wages, that's double what Bayern's top earners get. Double. For a 23 year old.
No other club was going to pay him that, not Barca, not even Madrid.
What he is underestimating is how much Mourinho has the capability to ruin his career.

Whose career was ruined by Mourinho ?

Valkyrja wrote:

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Are you trying to say with our stacked squad we won't dominate this season?

Then whatever weaknesses we have will be addressed next Summer and boom, we're on par with Madrid baby.

Yeah, especially with so many world beaters in the team. Anthony better than Messi MARTIAL, *bleep* his name you know who, Kolo and Yaya reborn and Wooney the 60 years old white Pele

Would you trade Martial for Messi ?

No thanks. Don't need a fat tax dodger who will probably quit club football in the next 3 years because it's getting a bit tougher, whilst Martial will dominate football for another 10 years.

Mourinho is murder on entitled and lazy players... he will absolutely ruin those. But for everyone else, he's made mostly a positive impact.

sportsczy wrote:S... I think even sportively it's a rational move.  I don't think Pogba thinks that Serie A is much of a challenge for Juve or for him personally.  He's won everything he can in that league.  So he's going to a club where he was a youth teamer where he will be personally challenged to lift the club.  

Bringing back a big club to glory again is as much a sporting project than going to a stacked team to try and accumulate as much trophies as possible.  Different...  but still valid.  I think it's admirable tbh since it's his youth club.  There's more than just the money there although the money is clearly the clinching factor.

Real Madrid and Man U are clearly his two top choices anyhow.  Either way, he'll end up being happy.

Thank you for saying that man. First time I am hearing someone who is not a United fan saying something along these lines. Appreciate it therefore even if it could very be possibly untrue. At least hearing it is a welcome change amid all these shit and scum posted on the internet.

If it wasn't Man U, Pogba would never ever join a team that wasn't in CL regardless of the money. Impossible to me.

Some interesting points here.

First the financial factor. I understand that but I am sure there have been some players in the past who had big money thrust at them to tempt them to move and they stayed put. That's probably because they valued the football they played, the team they played for and the club they belonged to. The other point here is how much influence you allow your agent (whose only interest is making money and could not care two hoots about the game) to have on you.

The sporting part is more debatable and I can see contradictory opinions expressed here, both of which I partly agree with. The problem with Mourinho can be that quite often he may make the team play very negatively and stifle some of the creative players. The other point worth mentioning is he perhaps poisons the minds of his players with hatred and bitterness, hardly desirable emotions. It should be possible to become a top competitor and champion without having to hold such immense negative feelings.

I am completely against the idea that players should move for a new sporting challenge and/or to prove a point. It's completely up to them in terms of what they want in their careers as well as personal happiness. You can never be short of challenges. If the league's become too easy there's always the UCL which is never easy. International football will have it's own varied set of challenges. So if you lack something as a footballer you will be found out somewhere. You don't need to move to another club or league to prove yourself.

Where I can empathize with a player moving is when the club is not giving him the necessary resources to make the best of his abilities. This could be due to two kinds of situations. One is that you are a top player but not able to win anything due to lack of quality team mates, coaching staff, supporting structure, etc. The other is that the coach doesn't fancy you and you are played out of position or worse still see a lot of time on the bench. Even in such cases though going to a direct rival should be avoided and moving to another league is a better solution, especially if you are a very beloved player at your current club.

Neither of Paolo Maldini and Javier Zanetti to name just two icons would have been better players or earned more respect if they had jumped clubs five times in their careers.

sportsczy wrote:If it wasn't Man U, Pogba would never ever join a team that wasn't in CL regardless of the money.  Impossible to me.  

To that I would add it would also have to be one of the top names in football coaching. He would probably not have moved for a less known coach.

It's like when Franck Ribery moved to Bayern Munich. He knew he wouldn't be in the UCL in his first season but this was not a one year deal in his mind. He intended to stay there for a few years and build a career. If Pogba sincerely wants to go to ManUtd then I can wish him the best but if he is aiming this to be a quick stop gap before he can jump to Madrid or Barca, then that's pathetic. I get the feeling he still seems to be wanting to hold on for Madrid calling him but I am obviously not sure of this.

According to Di Marzio things are wrapping up today

AS English ‏@English_AS 3 Std.vor 3 Stunden

Real Madrid have a plan B if they miss out on Pogba... Moussa Sissoko. In fairness, he had a better Euro 2016.


AS

Real

"in fairness"

Yea just got a text saying Pogba will be done by tomorrow

Serie A was the top league in the world though for most of Maldini and Zanetti's career. Also, you have Milan, Inter, Juve and even others competing hard for the title almost every season... right now, Serie A is a one team league. I think Juve has run away with the Serie A crown every year he's been there.

He's said it himself in the few interviews he's given... he's said that he needs to be challenged to remain motivated and, the moment he no longer feels challenged, he will either change clubs or retire. Now, there is the money factor involved here too. But again, no way he joins Man U who isn't in CL unless the project was super ambitious and he was a youth product. Even then, he probably would prefer to play in La Liga stylistically. But since Barca and Madrid don't want to shell the cash, he's going to 3rd on his list... and there's no doubt that's always been Man U. He even said that we wanted to go back to Man U in his career at some point. I doubt he expected it to happen now though.

sports

Stop spamming pls

Man International football really does a number on some people. What you do or don't do over the course of your entire career pales in comparison to what you do in a few hundred minutes of International football.

Fully expect some rumours soon about City going after Eder with Muller as their plan B. In all fairness Eder is clearly superior.

With Gonzalo Higuain's move to Juventus complete, it seems like the pieces are in place for Paul Pogba to finally clinch a world-record move to Manchester United this summer.

Although sources have told ESPN FC that Real Madrid have been in contact with Juve this week, United remain firm favourites for his signature and reports in England and Italy suggest an agreement is very, very close.

The Sun says the deal is already done, while reports in Italy are slightly more cautious but make similar claims: Sky Sport Italia and Gazzetta dello Sport expect an agreement to be reached by the end of the week, while Tuttosport said on Thursday that "the sale is imminent and could be announced within a matter of hours." Marca adds that Madrid won't meet his €125 million price tag.

The end of the saga appears to be in sight.

sportsczy wrote:Serie A was the top league in the world though for most of Maldini and Zanetti's career.  Also, you have Milan, Inter, Juve and even others competing hard for the title almost every season...  right now, Serie A is a one team league.  I think Juve has run away with the Serie A crown every year he's been there.

He's said it himself in the few interviews he's given...  he's said that he needs to be challenged to remain motivated and, the moment he no longer feels challenged, he will either change clubs or retire.  Now, there is the money factor involved here too.  But again, no way he joins Man U who isn't in CL unless the project was super ambitious and he was a youth product.  Even then, he probably would prefer to play in La Liga stylistically.  But since Barca and Madrid don't want to shell the cash, he's going to 3rd on his list... and there's no doubt that's always been Man U.  He even said that we wanted to go back to Man U in his career at some point.  I doubt he expected it to happen now though.

Interesting comments. So if Serie A was more competitive he may not have moved. Maybe clubs should stop buying the best players of their rivals and cast a thought or two about maintaining the competitive standard of the league.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/manchester-united-confident-pogba-transfer-11674289

Winning CL with Juve isn't a challenge ?