I have no doubt that the price of £100m+ is inflated for Pogba even in today's market. But having said that, we do need a player of his calibre and if we can afford his fee and his wages, then why not? of course for United there is element of paying a world record for a player "we let go on a free" and therefore some feeling of "swallowing ones pride" and "all this money could have been saved". On the footballing front, there is no doubt in my mind that if (still not certain as Real has entered the picture again today) we do get him and he gives his best football to United for 10 years, it will have been money well spent. On the commercial front, Woodward is already rubbing his hands at the prospect of United having the most expensive player in the world and all the marketing possibilities that this will provide over the years. Make no mistake the GGs and Woodie will recoup that money in no time.
If Pogba ends up going to Madrid, I hope they end up paying more than we have proposed. I would be happy with that outcome given how displeased I am with the inflated price and that godawful agent. I see all the relative comparisons being made to justify Pogba's £100m+ tag and it still doesn't add up. Swarbs mentioned Sterling at £49m when in actual fact we all knew that City were mugs to pay that to begin with. We can't even bring Ronaldo's price into the picture because he was without a doubt an epitome of a world class player when Real got him. He had won them all. Bale on the other end was inflated as well. Real paid too much for him when they did. £65m for Lukaku is a joke but I think De Bruyne was worth his fee. When you think of the fact that Pogba was supposed to be £60m three months ago, yet after average Euro, the price has almost double. It's like WTF??!! Having said that, we do need a solid midfielder and ideally I would hope for a young one of Pogba's age. If we miss out on Pogba, I hope the other options lined up give us what we need as a team at a much reduced priced.
I can see him definitely going to RM - his stated preference since way back when. All RM have to do is shift Morata and James for reasonable money and the deal will be done - and that is what I think the delay is all about, RM have asked the agent to stall while they see what likelihood there is of raising the transfer fee through sales in the coming weeks - what other reason is there for a delay, we've got the cash to keep bidding until Juve are happy and personal terms won't be a problem either once we free up wages from the sale of a couple of unwanted players. Once again we have been used. Pogba wants to go to RM, they are struggling to get the cash together and our 'firm interest' and an actual bid for the player to Juve have forced RM to get moving and try to shift some players. All Woody would have to do to guarantee the player is stick in a bid somewhere near the 100 mill mark.
Agree about your assertion wrt - KDB, he is a class. But Pogba can play with the pressure of any price, he has shown that in Serie A. If you miss out on Pogba - I hope you don't go after Matic and our brainless s#!ts don't ship him to you. I like this theory. Everyone wins if this happens. But don't see this convoluted process happening. Pogba is heading to OT>
Definitely would be cheesed off if he went to Real with a lower price. I can understand Real having second thoughts about not competing. For them it will be pride as well as commercial sense. Imagine being top dogs and being the biggest club in the world with the current 2 most expensive players in the world and being overtaken to the new most expensive player and first £100m player and admitting they don't have enough money to compete. It is now full scale 1-1 fight to get Pogba and I can see his price going up even further to something ridiculous and surreal like £120m. Once Real declare they are interested they just cannot afford to be seen to lose.
The reason I think for the delay is Pogba waiting for Real to be definitively out of contention. It looks like he would have preferred Real even if Real pay him less (about 30%) than United. Havng bought Higuain for £79m (!) I would have thought that Juventus are not going to let Pogba go for less than £100m. Real are financially strapped so paying £100m plus agents fees is going to really tax them and the constant illegal financial support given to them by the Spanish government is under greater scrutiny. We'll see.
Putting things into perspective................... Zlatan: "All I'm hearing is Pogba is too expensive, this and that, well, my jersey sales alone will pay for Pogba."
No doubt a quality player, but for £100m and £300k a week in wages, you could get 2 genuinely WC centre midfielders for that. You could have signed Kante for £35m and someone like Koke for £40m with money to spare! They would both walk straight into your CM as a pairing with Miki on the right, Martial on the left & Rooney behind Ibra up top.
****, his wages are going up faster than Rooney's. By the time the season kicks off he will be on £500m/week (i dread to think what they will rise to if we actually sign him)
Most reports seen say it's about 300k? Anyway, wasn't the point. Is Pogba going to win you more points than say Kante & Koke would from CM? For that much money he should be winnings games on his own like others that cost that much do... Suarez/Bale/Neymar/Ronaldo etc..
I can honestly say I have never seen him in a game where he has impressed me much, that said, I haven't seen that many Juve games. He does score more than Kante though and his free kicks alone are worth £50m
That's why I threw in Koke who scores a few goals and can take free kicks as well.. anyway you have Depay for free kicks.. deadly he is apparently
I am pretty sure Memphis has scored more free kicks than Ronaldo in the last two years (and he's the best in the world), if he ever gets his feet put back on the right way round we will be unstoppable
Take Bale out of that bracket. In my opinion, he hasn't done it for Real since he transferrer. He is less impactful than Benzema if we think about it.
The deal is done, Christian. Juve is more or less spending the money from Pogba's deal. There is no way they are now going to sell Pogba for what they've paid for Higuain. As for Higuain at £79m? That too is madness!! But hey, it's the new brave world of mad money.
His hair is worth £30 mill alone. The local hairdressing business will no doubt trump up some of the transfer fee as they will be making zillions each time he changes his hair cut.
Koke's not interested in moving this summer, if at all. He's turned down moves to Barca and Real in the past couple of seasons, so no idea why you think he would be a viable target? He'd also be closer to £80m given Atletico rejected £50m and £60m bids last summer without any hesitation. Also I'm not sure why we would want to sign Kante when we already have Carrick and Schneiderlin in the same position. That's the whole point about Pogba - he's not only a quality player but also completely different to anything we currently have in CM.
that's why I am in favour of getting Pogba despite the high price. He will improve our midfield (some will say that this is not difficult ). There is this argument that with that money we could get 2x £50m midfield players. Yes but what's the point if we've already got those types of players and Mourinho is trying to get rid of some those already
Koke was just an example of another midfielder who is different and is more of a playmaker. Last paragraph surely was tongue in cheek? Why buy Kante when you have carrick and Schneiderlin? He's better than both of them put together as well as younger. Carrick is decent on the ball but defensively can't get around the pith and Schneiderlin has looked nothing great since he's joined you. I dont ont diaagree he's a quality player, all I said was you could buy Kante and another very very good CM for £70m who offers something different (kroos, koke, pjanic, niaggalan etc)
