Paul Pogba

Scholsey2004 said:
Far, far less than Pogbas.
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I’d say massively more...taking away goals and assists, which btw you cannot actually ignore, but the overall quality of Bruno’s game is wildly inconsistent.

My opinion is that both are brilliant players but one has been painted with a positive slant and one with a negative. You’ll never get the same stats from a DLP and to be fair Bruno is just a better goal scorer anyway.
 
Ali Dia said:
Another great post. In a way if we’d written our last few posts first I’d be like I totally agree with this guy up to a point but my first choice would be we should get something new going, a new dynamic, i know I can come on a bit strong when challenged but I don’t hate Pogba, honestly. I only care about the club and want what’s best for United. If that’s Pogba back to top form and motivated with a dm in behind then that’s good enough for me. It’s worth a try if his heart is truly in it. We didn’t really have much luck with that over the last few years until Ole came in.

I just wish I could see that the owners have some kind of grand plan for the team but the fact the Pogba situation has rumbled on for so long makes me doubt that they are on top of any of it (apart from the youth) My order of preference in a perfect world would be
1 get the money for him and reinvest in other starters.
2 sign him up and give it another go!
3 let him stay till the end of his deal and go on a free again
4 sell him and the owners don’t reinvest.
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Yea I agree, but I’m glad we went through the conversation we went through in order to get here though.

As for Pogba’s future, I honestly don’t really care. If I was presented with a life after Pogba that looked better than the current one, of course I’d want it. Even if it were not better, but Pogba was so disruptive and kicking and screaming - I’d still want it. But this has never appeared to be the case to me. He seems more a uniting front in the dressing room than a divisive one, he has no problem with the manager, which all allows me to look at it from a simple purely football perspective. He’s a quality player, I’d rather him as one of our midfield options than most. We bought VDB, and so far, he hasn’t looked fit to lace his boots, and he was a highly rated big (ish) money player. It’s not as easy as it seems.

As far as the owners go, I don’t know - I’m going to assume that they will take the direction from Ole on who he wants to keep and sell. That said, there are also business considerations. As we have seen with far lesser players than Pogba - you can’t just sell who you want for the amount you want when you want. They may keep him, even if just for another hear because it makes business sense. They may also extend his contract if they feel it makes business sense (to protect his value), but I’d like to think they would only do that if their manager okays it and the all parties are happy to continue. There’s little to suggest that wouldn’t be the case. I’ve never doubted that Pogba has wanted to leave us during his time here. I’ve only questioned the extent to which its been portrayed as some desperation to get away from the club at all costs. He’s been open to leave, I think, as we’ve struggled, or just for a new challenge - but he’s never been ‘unhappy’ to the point where if he stayed he’d sulk and cause problems. There’s frankly been little evidence of that, and every evidence to suggest the opposite.
 
Such a big conundrum for the club. On the one hand, signing Pogba back up for a huge deal on massive wages is a gamble, given the inconsistencies in his performance over the past few years. That is if he even wants to sign another deal.

On the other hand, selling him and buying another player is even more of a gamble. The names that get bandied around as midfield signings on these forums never sound that convincing to me. I had thought that VDB was signed with him leaving in mind, but he doesn't get many chances so it doesn't look likely.

It is the same as the De Gea situation in many ways. I just hope the club are decisive on both, whichever road they go down. Feels like we too often try to hedge our bets rather than committing to anything.
 
Bobade said:
Such a big conundrum for the club. On the one hand, signing Pogba back up for a huge deal on massive wages is a gamble, given the inconsistencies in his performance over the past few years. That is if he even wants to sign another deal.

On the other hand, selling him and buying another player is even more of a gamble. The names that get bandied around as midfield signings on these forums never sound that convincing to me. I had thought that VDB was signed with him leaving in mind, but he doesn't get many chances so it doesn't look likely.

It is the same as the De Gea situation in many ways. I just hope the club are decisive on both, whichever road they go down. Feels like we too often try to hedge our bets rather than committing to anything.
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Totally agree. If we do not keep Pogba around, does CM become our top priority for the summer? Seems like it must.

And if so, very hard to see signing a quality CM and Sancho/RW on our usual transfer budget. That is unless we net some large and unexpected transfer revenue and wage bill reductions (DDG seems like the best candidate for both).
 
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CasaStreets said:
Totally agree. If we do not keep Pogba around, does CM become our top priority for the summer? Seems like it must.

And if so, very hard to see signing a quality CM and Sancho/RW on our usual transfer budget. That is unless we net some large and unexpected transfer revenue and wage bill reductions (DDG seems like the best candidate for both).
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Yeah I presume the plan is to pursue signing a DM if we have any funds after sorting out CB & RW, however if like you say Pogba leaves then it obviously switches to signing a creative CM instead
 
If Pogba played last night, those final balls would be delicious.

I'd rather for him to sign a new deal.
 
Based on the fact that we're still banding about whether or not he's staying or going, I'd think there's a contention point over his wages or he's leaving at this point.
We're getting closer to the point where we're needing to know what needs to be done in the summer.
 
MattofManchester said:
Based on the fact that we're still banding about whether or not he's staying or going, I'd think there's a contention point over his wages or he's leaving at this point.
We're getting closer to the point where we're needing to know what needs to be done in the summer.
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Who can realistically afford him this summer unless PSG want to swap him for Verratti but no way would they let him leave
 
croadyman said:
Who can realistically afford him this summer unless PSG want to swap him for Verratti but no way would they let him leave
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Juventus if they get rid of Ronaldo? Presumably they'll want to make a statement signing after losing the league and a shite CL campaign.
 
I think this simply goes one of two ways now, we either give him a new contract to make him our highest earner and Raiola a decent sum OR he goes on a free in the summer of 2022, due to COVID no one can really afford him this summer whilst any swap deal would mean we still need to replace him yet we have bigger holes to fill and don’t have unlimited funds.
 
Delighted to hear he could be back for the cup games this week. We need our best players if we’re gonna finish the season with a trophy and that’s very much what the focus will be on now that top 4 is looking very secure.

It would be a kick in the teeth if we lost him again for next to nothing, especially after what we paid to bring him back. I know he divides opinion on here and I can respect both sides of the argument. I do think, particularly in the current climate, he would be hard to replace without spending a huge amount of money and we have other areas of concern that are more pressing. We should be adding to our best players. The comments from his agent and family members do frustrate me as much as the next fan, mind. Ideally he’d make a statement confirming his ambitions at the club and just knuckle down and let his performances do the rest of the talking, like he did in his good spell before this injury.
 
T00lsh3d said:
The question is, what’s an acceptable fee?
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Difficult to say nowadays, before Covid I think it was around 150m which was fair enough. But if you consider that WH asked for 80m for Rice, then Pogba is still worth double of that amount
 
If he goes, then I'd just push Hannibal through and give him games. McTominay and Fred will most likely play the majority of our games next season, but if we are struggling for creativity and don't feel that Donny is the answer, then Hannibal will help us no end.
 
duffer said:
If he can leave for free in a year, it's a difficult decision for the club. Is a year of Pogba worth the money you could get for him now?
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It completely depends who you are going to get to replace him.

We need his quality badly so if the replacement we can get is not of top quality then feck it just keep him.

Our midfield is devoid of ball playing ability when he is missing
 
Remember the geese said:
If he goes, then I'd just push Hannibal through and give him games. McTominay and Fred will most likely play the majority of our games next season, but if we are struggling for creativity and don't feel that Donny is the answer, then Hannibal will help us no end.
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A McTominay Fred starting pair will never compete with city. You can't let one of your best players leave and not replace him with as good a player as possible.
 
laughtersassassin said:
A McTominay Fred starting pair will never compete with city. You can't let one of your best players leave and not replace him with as good a player as possible.
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I don't think the budget is there. I imagine we will sign a centre back and some sort of a forward. It's probably just testament to how highly I rate Hannibal.
 
duffer said:
But then you'd have to replace him in 12 months without whatever fee you got for him.
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Yeah exactly a catch 22 really. That's football though. Still one more year to get him to stay too.

Club fecked itself on this especially since we are so cheap.
 
Remember the geese said:
I don't think the budget is there. I imagine we will sign a centre back and some sort of a forward. It's probably just testament to how highly I rate Hannibal.
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The budget isn't their but you Can't let your midifeld regress. Its not acceptable.

That's the problem with this club. Always an excuse these days.

I rate Hannibal too. Replace Pogba if he goes and promote Hannibal.
 
duffer said:
Chelsea got a load for Hazard when he only had a year left so you never know, there might be a decent offer for him.
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Yeah that's true. It's not really about the fee though. It's about who you get with that fee.

Sure we sold Lukaku and didn't sign a single attacker. Only got Bruno when I'm Jan when we realised how fecked we are.

Hopefully the club has learnt from that but I expect not
 
SinNombre said:
RM in a swap for Varane maybe.
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I'd take a swap with Varane. I don't think any club will pay us what we want for Pogba, nor do I think many clubs, including us, will be throwing a lot of cash around this summer. Plus I'd rather get a good player in return, as you can't guarantee cash will immediately be reinvested.

Both players are around the same age, both are reportedly not wanting to sign a new contract, Varane seems to have gotten over his injury proneness from earlier in his career. It could be a deal that suits both clubs. But only if he actually wants to come here.

We'd still need to replace Pogba though. Unless that's what VdB was for, pre-empting Pogba's departure.
 
laughtersassassin said:
A McTominay Fred starting pair will never compete with city. You can't let one of your best players leave and not replace him with as good a player as possible.
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While I don't disagree with the idea of replacing Pogba, I also dont' think we need to be a city to compete with city (oil rich cnuts, 2 world class players in every position). Klopp has shown that if you have an elite forward line, you can do perfectly well with an industrious, hard working midfield.

The biggest issue is that Fred is nowhere near as consistent as we need him to be, otherwise a Fred McTominay midfield would be just fine.
 
mu4c_20le said:
While I don't disagree with the idea of replacing Pogba, I also dont' think we need to be a city to compete with city (oil rich cnuts, 2 world class players in every position). Klopp has shown that if you have an elite forward line, you can do perfectly well with an industrious, hard working midfield.

The biggest issue is that Fred is nowhere near as consistent as we need him to be, otherwise a Fred McTominay midfield would be just fine.
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In sorry but I just disagree. McTominay Fred pair cannot be the main starting pair to compete with any real consistency. They can't control games as they don't have the quality on the ball.

Yes they where both good in the ball last night but that game was the exception with them.
 
To people saying we should sell and find a replacement for him. Who would that be exactly?

In my eyes he’s one of the best midfielders in the world, with a skillset that matches exactly what we need in that no. 8 position. There simply aren’t many midfielders that could replace him, much less anyone that’s realistically available. Must say that i get as annoyed as the next guy when his agent starts spouting shite but truth is we should be aiming to renew his contract if at all possible.
 
Unless we get a good fee so we can replace him, we can't afford to lose him.
 
Gythio said:
To people saying we should sell and find a replacement for him. Who would that be exactly?

In my eyes he’s one of the best midfielders in the world, with a skillset that matches exactly what we need in that no. 8 position. There simply aren’t many midfielders that could replace him, much less anyone that’s realistically available. Must say that i get as annoyed as the next guy when his agent starts spouting shite but truth is we should be aiming to renew his contract if at all possible.
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On the ball maybe, but he simply isn't good enough defensively to play that role for me. No matter how good the main defensive midfielder is, the second guy in midfield still needs to have good defensive positioning and work-rate.

Pogba should have been perfect as the most attacking of a three man midfield but we simply never set that up properly, other than maybe Matic-Herrera-Pogba which did have a very good record but never seemed to be used consistently. Now that we have Bruno doing so well at #10 that option isn't going to happen again.
 
Gythio said:
To people saying we should sell and find a replacement for him. Who would that be exactly?

In my eyes he’s one of the best midfielders in the world, with a skillset that matches exactly what we need in that no. 8 position. There simply aren’t many midfielders that could replace him, much less anyone that’s realistically available. Must say that i get as annoyed as the next guy when his agent starts spouting shite but truth is we should be aiming to renew his contract if at all possible.
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He is very good on his day but still too inconsistent and his injury record over the last couple of seasons is bad

I see your point on who an appropriate replacement might be though, our hand maybe forced given his contract is running out. If we replaced him with someone less talented (albeit still more talented than fred) but more consistent and with a better injury record we would probably be better off
 
I don’t think we will or should try to find another Pogba to replace him. He is too much of a hybrid player - don’t think there is another one like him.

I would just find a top quality CM who can help ball progression, create chances, be tactically aware and chip in with the odd goal.

I like Fabian Ruiz. I was certain Madrid would buy him but they seem out of cash. His contract expires in 2023 so the window to buy him is opening up. He is also at a good age - drop in replacement but still has 5-6 good years at least ahead of him.
 
red4ever 79 said:
Or we run the risk of losing him for free next summer. From Jan he can negotiate with clubs abroad which might suit him.
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I'd rather keep him a year and lose him on a free than sell him and get no one in. Otherwise all next season we are complaining about how we aren't going to win anything without a CM.

With Pogba we have a chance to win things next season, which is worth any sale price we'd have gone(financially speaking).
 
bsCallout said:
I'd rather keep him a year and lose him on a free than sell him and get no one in. Otherwise all next season we are complaining about how we aren't going to win anything without a CM.

With Pogba we have a chance to win things next season, which is worth any sale price we'd have gone(financially speaking).
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I agree in the sense that I dont trust our owners or Ed to have the best interests of the club at heart.
 
duffer said:
If he can leave for free in a year, it's a difficult decision for the club. Is a year of Pogba worth the money you could get for him now?
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Absolutely not.

I like Pogba, but he’s contributed barely anything in the last 2 seasons.

is that worth a transfer fee of £30m + wages?

unfortunately not.
 
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