So I bought the article.
Discussions have been started between executives of Man Utd and those of Juventus for the transfer of Paul Pogba.
And what if he came back, 4 years later? The possibility to see Paul Pogba again in a Manchester United shirt takes more and more credibility as days pass as a first contact has been made between Ed Woodward, the executive director of the Red Devils, and Juventus Turin executives, where the 23 years old French international is under contract until 2019. Of English source, Manchester leans on a substantial financial envelope to finalise this case and satisfy the desires of Jose Mourinho, who already dreamed of Pogba, last summer, when he was at Chelsea. This works out great, Juventus has no intention to negotiate starting a certain amount (we're being told 100 M€).
For Pogba, coming back one day at Manchester was a step in his career plan.
The Portugese manager of Manchester United considers, in a first phase, to use a 4-3-3 formation, Pogba and Wayne Rooney as "relaying" midfielders, Zlatan Ibrahimovic as a centre forward, Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitarian supporting the Swedish. The arrivals of Ibra and the Armenian international of the Borussia Dortmund are also about to be concluded. And those 2 players have a common point with Pogba: they share the same agent, Mino Raiola. The agent works hard since several days to speed up this deal, along with others, more random, in the media. "We are at the beginning of a negotiation phase, did he share with the Spanish newspaper Marca, on 20th June. Pogba admires the Real Madrid and Zidane, and this will weight in his decision."
In general, Raiola does not talk publicly on the state of negotiations regarding players under contract with him and, yesterday, on the Italian-Dutch agent side, they didn't want to talk about Manchester's interests, "and no other topic that is not related to the Euro". However, the contact is well activated and the possibility to see Raiola realize most of the recruitment of Manchester at a moment when Mourinho, whose agent is the powerful Joge Mendes, comes to the club, has something unreal. Especially as sir Alex Ferguson, in his auto biography entitled Leading, justified the leaving of the young French, in 2012. "There are one or two football agents who I simply dislike, and Raiola, the agent of Pogba, is one of them. Him and me, we were like oil and water. From there it was dead in the water since Raiola could integrate himself with Paul and his family and the player signed with Juventus." In a certain way, the fact that the return of Pogba is considered shows the loss of influence of sir Alex within the club.
By the way, for Pogba, coming back one day at Manchester was a step in his career plan. Even though he left the office of Ferguson in a tense context, the former Havre player always appreciated the club and its environment. Recently, in an interview at So Foot, he lauded Paul Scholes, who "could shoot ten times, ten times he would put the ball at the same place", and appreciate the fact that in England, "they want to score goals over there". If the Italian football has made him progress tactically, the Premier League was always in a corner of the mind of "la Pioche" even though he was tempted to join la Liga, last summer...
Not playing the Champions League could weight in this decision, since MU has to contend of the Europa League this season. But the perspective of playing under Mourinho tempts Pogba, really. New appointments should occur between Woodward and his Turin counterparts next week and a first offer could come in to buy the last 3 years of the player. At Manchester, the latter would find back his team mates in the national team, Anthony Martial and Morgan Schneiderlin, with whom he has to mention the club, its news and the pleasure of wearing its shirts. He wore them only 3 times in the league, in 2011-2012, and once in Europa League. And he has a taste of unfinished business.
So maybe Mourinho is confident Pogba would work under him. Should Real be unable to match the bid, and Juventus alright with a 100M euro fee, it should be done.