Paul Pogba / turned down United offer of 300k as “nothing”

We can argue systems, positions, and team results, but for me, even today, if we were signing Pogba for 50 million I'd be thrilled.

There is valid criticism in the way he has never fully committed to staying long term, or the behaviour of his agent (which, in fact, is the reason we have him in the first place) and his brothers (worth noting that for all the criticisms his family gets, it was his mother who told him to come back), but it's not like we have been lighting the world on fire lately.

For me, when Pogba has gotten a run in the team, in his preferred positions, he has consistently performed and we've been better for it. We've never really competed since he arrived but that's been in a forgettable team era, and Pogba has just become the most salient object of fans frustration during this period. Pogba has absolutely dominated for long period since his arrival, and I feel it's a bit unfair to lay his price tag and our expectations at his doorstep. Did Griezmann, Coutinho, Hazard, Neymar, James, or even Mbappe transform their clubs? Hardly.

I respect the perspective of wanting him to go, receiving a transfer fee and not ballooning his salary from a squad management perspective, but "Jogba" on a good day (and we can argue how often that occurs) is, for me, arguably our best player. The forum is up in arms about grealish, but Pogba is only about 3 years older and has proven time and time again that he can consistently perform at at least that level, and is *the* midfielder to consistently create opportunities for our ever increasing and improving attacking options. For me, outside of dreaming of KdB or Kimmich, no midfielder certainly improves us.

I understand the frustration. But we cannot wait any longer, we must compete with City and Liverpool and the European giants now. Pogba gives us the best realistic chance. I've insisted that that will depend on whether we can obtain a consistent CDM, or Fred/Mctominay improve, but we all know what Pogba is capable of even in a two with a competent CDM.

I understand the pride of being a Manchester united fan, and not wanting to be toyed with, but name one club ever that hasn't? It's just unrealistic. We need to compete, and I salivate at the prospect of a motivated Pogba (who, performed even under under-fire Mourinho) linking with Sancho, a fit rash, Bruno, Cavani and greenwood. I honestly believe, given how City are strengthening, and the expected performance of Liverpool and City, keeping Pogba is our best chance - and the club know it.
Excellent post. I can't help thinking that this moment is a key one in our team's future. If we swallow a tiny bit of pride and Pogba stays, there's a good chance he'll kick on in a team that has strengthened itself and rethink any desire he might have to move on next year. A happy Pogba, surrounded by a few world-class teammates amid a strong squad, might end up wanting to finish his career at United, a team he clearly loves.
2 great posts.
 
I think both sides are playing games with leaking stories.

It probably says in a way that clubs are probably not too keen to pay what they are demanding at least this summer.
 
Excellent post. I can't help thinking that this moment is a key one in our team's future. If we swallow a tiny bit of pride and Pogba stays, there's a good chance he'll kick on in a team that has strengthened itself and rethink any desire he might have to move on next year. A happy Pogba, surrounded by a few world-class teammates amid a strong squad, might end up wanting to finish his career at United, a team he clearly loves.
I really doubt if it has anything to do with swallowing pride from the club side.

Probably trying to not overpay them like what we did with Sanchez.

Also the club is probably playing nice with them as much as they can with his agent for Haaland next summer.
 
So we're hoping our 89m player will finally perform consistently on his last year while running down his contract to leave because we have finally assembled a mostly top class squad so he's no longer the main focus of the team ? I mean the bar for Pogba according to some here is pretty low with such expectations.
 
United are currently posting a lot Pogba pictures and marketing new away kit with him. I dont think he is going anywhere this summer. At least transfer should not be near. Unfortunately i have feeling that he will move with a free transfer next summer. Can choose his new team and get huge signing bonus.
 
So we're hoping our 89m player will finally perform consistently on his last year while running down his contract to leave because we have finally assembled a mostly top class squad so he's no longer the main focus of the team ? I mean the bar for Pogba according to some here is pretty low with such expectations.

I think the bar for our club's ability to get the best out of our talent is pretty low, compared to other clubs.
 
Why? Honestly parting ways with him is the best thing coup whatever you can and reinvest.
 
I’ve always thought he has huge amounts of ability and is an exciting player to watch.

However, I think he has a propensity to pick and choose his games and is too focused on his image and brand. It would be fair to say Ronaldo is guilty of doing the same, although you could never question his dedication. I think you can, unfortunately, with Pogba.

I don’t think he is a liability like I have seen mentioned on more than one occasion, but he is erratic and to date, has shown little evidence that he can relied upon to perform on a regular basis.

Part of me feels it’s time for him to move on. Despite his qualities, I’m not convinced he will ever live up to the high expectations many place on him, at least not at Utd. Getting a fee, as opposed to losing him on a free is of course the financially prudent thing to do as well.
 
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So we're hoping our 89m player will finally perform consistently on his last year while running down his contract to leave because we have finally assembled a mostly top class squad so he's no longer the main focus of the team ? I mean the bar for Pogba according to some here is pretty low with such expectations.

What exactly is "perform consistently" to you? In my book, as a midfielder, he has had numerous spells where he has consistently been our best performer and very few where he has been performing poorly since he arrived. The fact of the matter is that, yes, we paid 89m for him, and we need to get over that. Is he gonna will us to victory in the premier league? Obviously not. Can we find a midfielder who will clearly, or even probably, perform better than he has? For me, the answer is ofcourse not. Saúl can't get a game and has never played outside of atlético, Leon Goretzka is not leaving Bayern Munich (and is the inferior, if perhaps more focused midfielder) and the rest are just absolutely meh.


Why? Honestly parting ways with him is the best thing coup whatever you can and reinvest.

Reinvest in who exactly? There's a reason why we are willing to let him go on a free next year. Pride and frustration aside, he is head and shoulders our best option to compete this year. He has shown time and time again what he is capable of doing in a wide variety of positions, against top opposition and under different managers. Choosing to focus on the times he's fallen short is counterproductive given he's most likely gonna stay, and our season will depend on him doing well.
 
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Yes that's exactly what I said and I stand by that statement.

I then brought up the mistakes the club has made with contract renewal of DDG into this discussion is because it apparently strengthens your argument as this aligns with the club's decision comparing to those so called 'armchair pundits' that disagree with them.

So I asked did you think DDG new contract was the right decision by the club, since we are not qualified to question the club decision particularly when it comes from those 'armchair pundits'.
I’ve made it clear it’s different with Pogba, but I agreed to an extent with DDG’s contract and said so at the time.

He was our best player and we needed him, we still do ironically because Henderson hardly set the world alight. Perhaps your example demonstrates this well as when Pogba is finally hounded out of the club by ‘armchair pundits’ and we’ve got McFred doing their thing you might realise getting rid of your best players is never a good thing.

The point is lost on you though because you’d rather get ridiculously literal over one thing I said rather than discuss your initial statement that triggered my response in the first place.
 
So we're hoping our 89m player will finally perform consistently on his last year while running down his contract to leave because we have finally assembled a mostly top class squad so he's no longer the main focus of the team ? I mean the bar for Pogba according to some here is pretty low with such expectations.
We just bought a WC partner for our 80M CB, and hopefully we'll get a complementary RB for our expensive new RW as well.

Prices don't have as much to do with it, as partnerships and quality. Until we fill our longstanding holes and get top class personnell (coaches included), our players won't be consistent enough to beat teams like Pep's City to the title, regardless of price tags.
 
In my view, Pogba staying is quite critical to our hopes of competing for the title this upcoming season but he actually has to perform as the world class player we all know he can be, especially if we sign a DM. When we look around us, amongst our biggest rivals for the title (Man City and Liverpool) we are the least strong in midfield. Whenever we field Mct and Fred there, it significantly weakens our chances of defeating the smaller teams we should be defeating consistently and this is critical for our hopes of lifting the title. We only face City, Liverpool, and Chelsea twice a season in the epl where I feel those two might be useful, which makes a total of 6 games in 38 epl games.

What we need to improve on from last season is making our games against the likes of Leicester, Arsenal, Tottenham or any semi decent team in the league less of a 50/50 and outright being favorites for the win whenever we come up against them. This means dominating them in the actual games and making it less of a contest and this can only be achieved I think by having superior players (we now have them) who perform consistently to the level of ability they have given the system( this one is on Ole). It's the one thing Man city, Liverpool and may be Chelsea has, especially the former two, it's a really huge upset if any of this inferior teams defeat Man city or Pool, usually with a counter then defend for the rest of the game. This odd defeat or draws to this type of teams would happen especially during the course of a season but we need to limit the frequency it does.

This means going into the season with a more dominating and assured style, the signings of Varane and Sancho significantly helps with that, and the other peices crucial to that I believe is Pogba staying and signing a DM. Going into the season with McFred as the starting midfield again would just not help to put a gulf in class between ourselves and the likes of Arsenal, Leicester, Tottenham, Everton etcetera and turning our draws and defeats last season to comfortable wins. A change in system from Ole is of course also needed, we absolutely need to press high more and camp teams in their box more, with waves and waves of attacking until we wear them out, the signing of Varane and hopefully a DM will see to us being able to deal with counters better I believe.

We need to make sure Pogba,Bruno and our array of top class forward options are constantly in the opposition half which significantly raises our odds of winning matches against clearly inferior teams. But consistently playing McFred in games this upcoming season would lead to us resorting to our style of last season, where we would have to sit very deep and then invite clearly inferior teams unto us just to exploit space they leave and try win games from very few but high quality chances attacks. I personally think this style is a far less efficient way to win a game especially when we are competing against the likes of City and Pool in the same league. It just invites far more chances to be created against us and a sizeable portion of those chances would be taking eventually leaving with us too much to do and sometimes having us go behind in almost every game we should be winning comfortably.

Now if we can sell Pogba and get a replacement of his quality for a significantly larger sum than we would ever get for him, then am all for it. But given the financial situation caused by the pandemic and then the fact that we have also already spent a significant sum these window, I don't think that is realistic. For our hopes of going one better than what we achieved last season, it's crucial Pogba stays and then we fund a DM purchase from many of our other sellable assets (players).
 
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I'm hoping Varane was given some assurances on other signings at the club...notably Pogba staying.

Hate him or love him, Pogba makes us better. I believe Pogba has always been more ambitious than our club have been able to deliver...and we might just be getting there.

The biggest problem with Pogba is Raiola. I personally understand Raiola's role and what he does. However, we can't keep having the same circus around Pogba. So a part of me wants him to leave for this reason.

But I believe it will get sorted either way this summer, which I can't wait for. Hopefully sooner rather than later as he's now back at the club.
 
Exactly. It hasn't happened here. Despite some trying to personalize it ("snowflakes," "oversensitive," etc.), those of us trying to discuss criticisms of Paul Pogba within the wider context of societal racism haven't accused any individual of racism. The fact that despite no accusations some feel accused says it all. That's what I meant when I said we all need to examine our own biases and consciences. All of us.
Yep. All part of growing as a human. If you don't check yourself then you're relying on others. Which fails if you don't take the advice when you get it :lol:
 
I'm hoping Varane was given some assurances on other signings at the club...notably Pogba staying.

Hate him or love him, Pogba makes us better. I believe Pogba has always been more ambitious than our club have been able to deliver...and we might just be getting there.

The biggest problem with Pogba is Raiola. I personally understand Raiola's role and what he does. However, we can't keep having the same circus around Pogba. So a part of me wants him to leave for this reason.

But I believe it will get sorted either way this summer, which I can't wait for. Hopefully sooner rather than later as he's now back at the club.
Imagine we offer Pogba even 450k/week, on the condition that he fires Raiola. That would be the type of circus I enjoy. :wenger:
 
It's frustrating but the key thing to remember is that the media always has its own agenda. How Pogba is around and towards his teammates and staff is all that matters.
Whilst that’s true, it’s also true that he’s not going to sign a new contract so either we lose him again for nothing or we extract some value now whilst we still can
 
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I like him too. You can like the guy and still think he isn't right for the team anymore, imagine that!

This is the great thing about opinions, no-one is right no-one is wrong!
 
I think it's pretty clear from a mile off that Pogba is running down his contract and will leave on a free next summer.

Meanwhile he can be a useful player this season but having to fund his replacement from internal funds next season, a season we also want to fund the signing of a world class striker will be impossible to do.

I also think that there is a certain level of cowardice in our indecision wrt this situation. We don't want to make the big call on our biggest signing even when it's clear that he has no intention of staying beyond his current deal. He should be sold, we use the funds to sign a DM and then see who amongst VDB/Fred/McTominay emerges as the 8 in our starting line up.
 
I think it's pretty clear from a mile off that Pogba is running down his contract and will leave on a free next summer.

Meanwhile he can be a useful player this season but having to fund his replacement from internal funds next season, a season we also want to fund the signing of a world class striker will be impossible to do.

I also think that there is a certain level of cowardice in our indecision wrt this situation. We don't want to make the big call on our biggest signing even when it's clear that he has no intention of staying beyond his current deal. He should be sold, we use the funds to sign a DM and then see who amongst VDB/Fred/McTominay emerges as the 8 in our starting line up.

PSG is the only one interested and they need to sell a few to get him if he even wants to go. And if we sell him for less than £35M we actually lose money from it. So its not that easy unfortunately
 
PSG is the only one interested and they need to sell a few to get him if he even wants to go. And if we sell him for less than £35M we actually lose money from it. So its not that easy unfortunately
How do we lose money if we sell for less than 35m?
 
Rooney, Rio, Keane, Pogba ... One player is clearly the odd one out, especially in mental characteristics.
Compare the performances of Rooney in 2008/2009, Rio in 2004 and Keane in 1998/1999/2000 with Pogba's time here.

Pogba is a distraction - if Pogba gets 400K (or whatever) despite being above average, then what is stopping Bruno from asking the same? What's stopping others (McGuire/Shaw/Bissaka) from negotiating upwards? Surely their agents are observing this.

What I'm saying is that keeping Pogba will be decided by what he adds on the pitch. The romanticised version of 'we're Manchester Utd, no one can never hold us to ransom' never really existed.

With Pogba, the dressing room love him, by all accounts he's a model professional and he clearly is a match winner for us. The only bad noise is from his agent - but coincidentally people want us to sign Haaland so go figure. Pogba seems more of a distraction for the media than people inside the club.
 
If we go into the season with Pogba having not renewed I can only predict a fecking disaster unfortunately. I can imagine us being well into contention for the title going into the new year only for his fat cnut of an agent to start piping up, and then of course, the closer Pogba gets to the end of his contract the more cautious he's going to have to be going into 50/50s etc, there's just too many variables at play that I'd rather we just don't have to risk dealing with.

Really just want this sorted before the window shuts either way, I think it's so important that it is.
 
Pogba seems more of a distraction for the media than people inside the club.
There's a touch of masochism going on with a lot of the unhinged. I feel like most people aren't in the extremes and losing sleep over this.
 
If the roles were reversed and Pogba was available for 40-50 mill (with the same performances for PSG over the last 5 seasons as he has had for us). I'm sure pretty much everyone would be on the bandwagon wanting to sign him despite his wage. The fact is we're a better team with Pogba and he offers us something from midfield that is extremely hard to replace and find. There aren't many CMs available that can offer what Pogba does. So this whole notion of let's sell him and replace him is confusing. As Camavinga, Saul and Neves are players of an entirely different mould to Pogba.
 
If the roles were reversed and Pogba was available for 40-50 mill (with the same performances for PSG over the last 5 seasons as he has had for us). I'm sure pretty much everyone would be on the bandwagon wanting to sign him despite his wage. The fact is we're a better team with Pogba and he offers us something from midfield that is extremely hard to replace and find. There aren't many CMs available that can offer what Pogba does. So this whole notion of let's sell him and replace him is confusing. As Camavinga, Saul and Neves are players of an entirely different mould to Pogba.
It's not that simple though.

If he signs another contract some will be happy. If he is sold for 40+m some will be happy. If he stays and goes for free a lot of people will be unhappy.
 
If the roles were reversed and Pogba was available for 40-50 mill (with the same performances for PSG over the last 5 seasons as he has had for us). I'm sure pretty much everyone would be on the bandwagon wanting to sign him despite his wage. The fact is we're a better team with Pogba and he offers us something from midfield that is extremely hard to replace and find. There aren't many CMs available that can offer what Pogba does. So this whole notion of let's sell him and replace him is confusing. As Camavinga, Saul and Neves are players of an entirely different mould to Pogba.

There's a very good reason why we're apparently looking at players who are an entirely different mould to Pogba though? Even those like myself who like Pogba and respect and acknowledge what he can bring can understand why we're not looking for a Pogba like for like replacement.
 
If the roles were reversed and Pogba was available for 40-50 mill (with the same performances for PSG over the last 5 seasons as he has had for us). I'm sure pretty much everyone would be on the bandwagon wanting to sign him despite his wage. The fact is we're a better team with Pogba and he offers us something from midfield that is extremely hard to replace and find. There aren't many CMs available that can offer what Pogba does. So this whole notion of let's sell him and replace him is confusing. As Camavinga, Saul and Neves are players of an entirely different mould to Pogba.

I'm sure some people would want him.

But others would ask the rather pertinent question, where would he fit in to our current side? In the double pivot alongside one of McFred? In a 4-3-3 with Bruno and some non-existent DM? Out on the left where someone like Rashford would normally play? Having actually had him here for the last few years, we know the difficulty in balancing our side with him in midfield.

You say the likes of Camavinga, Saul and Neves are entirely different players but that's exactly the point. If Pogba goes the last thing we need is someone else in the Pogba mould, posing all the same problems in terms of the balance of our team.
 
How do we lose money if we sell for less than 35m?

United have to pay him £15m in wages if he leaves this summer.

So its a case of keep him for on eyear and let him leave or sell him and take a hit for a lesser fee.
 
It's not that simple though.

If he signs another contract some will be happy. If he is sold for 40+m some will be happy. If he stays and goes for free a lot of people will be unhappy.

In a nutshell.

I guess it only really matters how those within the club feel about him resigning. So long as the manager, players and coaching staff are on board are happy moving forward (and we have no reason to believe they wouldn't be), then it's all good.
 
United have to pay him £15m in wages if he leaves this summer.

So its a case of keep him for on eyear and let him leave or sell him and take a hit for a lesser fee.

How do you sell a player that no one wants to buy?

United are yet to receive a bid for Pogba according to reports.
 
Seem he is staying to run down that contract.
How do you sell a player that no one wants to buy?

United are yet to receive a bid for Pogba according to reports.
If Mbappe to Madrid happens then Pogba to PSG might also happen. Otherwise I'm sure he will do a pre contract mid season with whoever Raiola already has lined up.
 
Seem he is staying to run down that contract.

If Mbappe to Madrid happens then Pogba to PSG might also happen. Otherwise I'm sure he will do a pre contract mid season with whoever Raiola already has lined up.

We don't know for sure one way or the other. There's still a couple of weeks until the season kicks off, hopefully this will be sorted by then.
 


Obviously doing a sleight of hand of to cover up that it's a goodbye message...

just trying to keep up the thread's spirit