Manchester United flatly turned down a bid of 30 million euros (£27.6m) plus James Rodriguez for wantaway Frenchman Paul Pogba.
The offer – dismissed out of hand last week – is thought to have confirmed United’s suspicions that Real Madrid do not had the funds to finance a serious transfer move for Pogba after a summer in which the La Liga giants have already spent more than £270m in transfer fees.
Real have been trying to offload James Rodriguez all summer and have put a price of around £46million on the Colombia forward. That figure, combined with their small cash offer for Pogba, was still less than half United’s £160m valuation of the midfielder. Real have turned their sights to Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek.
United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insisted after his club’s 2-2 draw against AC Milan in Cardiff on Saturday that he had “no doubts” Paul Pogba would remain with the club for next campaign.
The Telegraph reported back on June 19 – just few days after Pogba had publicly declared his wish to move to another club – that the player feared he would be priced out of a move this summer window.
Real had already financed a huge signing spree by that time, with the signings of Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic, Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy and Rodrygo, and Juventus were also unwilling and unable to offer much more than the £89m fee they received for the midfielder from the Red devils in 2016.
Pogba is still interested in leaving United but the club and Solskjaer have been encouraged by his attitude during pre-season and the way he has buckled down so far.
Pogba’s team-mates at Old Trafford are understood to be well aware the player still wants out but he has not allowed that to affect his performances in training or the team’s pre-season matches.
It has also been noted that he has been very positive around the glut of academy graduates Ole Solskjaer has high hopes for.
Pogba’s behaviour began to frustrate some members of the team towards the end of last campaign – which they finished below top-four but there have been no such complaints this time around.
