Paul Pogba to Real Madrid is likely to be the story that dominates this transfer window. That’s unless Neymar returns to Barcelona, of course.
At this moment in time, the latter is looking extremely difficult, so the proposed Pogba deal is the dominant transfer.
So far, the story is this: Zidane desperately wants Pogba for his Real Madrid rebuild, and Florentino Perez is pushing to get the deal done. Pogba wants the move too and has made that clear, but Manchester United are playing hardball to get an arrangement that suits them.
So far there’s been little movement in the ongoing saga, with the complexities and high prices involved presumably holding things up.
Well, Sport have a massive update on the whole thing today and explain what’s happening. They say that Pogba is becoming a ‘headache’ for Perez because of Zidane’s insistence he signs him.
In fact, Zidane is seemingly obsessed with Pogba at this point, with Sport explaining that he has become ‘a fetish player’ for the Madrid boss, who refuses to consider either Christian Eriksen or Dani Ceballos as candidates instead.
This is baffling to Perez, who thinks Eriksen, in particular, would be a more manageable signing. The Madrid boss’ problem is the financial aspect of the Pogba deal.
He expects Pogba to cost €150m at least, and then the Frenchman wants €17m a year in wages. That’s €152 million over five years, add in €10m going to Mino Raiola, and the whole deal will come in at €312m. That’s a sum that makes Perez very uncomfortable.
Zidane won’t give up, though and demands Pogba’s signature above all else and that sets this whole saga up in quite an interesting light.
Will Perez risk the wrath of his manager by refusing to go all out for Pogba? He had to tempt Zidane back to the club with the promise of big signings and an overhaul of the squad, and he’s delivered that so far.
But Madrid don’t have a bottomless pit of money to work with either. If the Pogba deal simply isn’t viable, which those numbers suggest, then Perez will have to pull away.
That’s not going to go down well with Zidane, especially if Pogba has become a ‘fetish’ as Sport suggest.
