Madrid not out of the running to sign Pogba

Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola took to twitter yesterday to deny that Manchester United had closed a deal to sign the French midfielder, particularly after Pogba appeared on the front pages of the Italian press dressed as a Red Devil.

“No deal has been reached for Pogba. A lot of bla, bla, bla…”.Raiola’s comments were also in response to Thursday’s front page of L’Equipe, which also followed the line taken in the Italian and English media: “Pogba will be the most expensive transfer ever, for 120 million euros”.

United coach Mourinho also stoked up this summer’s transfer saga: "I asked them for four profiles of players, I gave them a few options and they did for me 75 per cent of the job and we just have 25 per cent to do before August 31”, although he did go on to say: “First of all, because I don't think it’s correct to speak about players from other clubs. He's [Pogba] a Juventus player not a Manchester United player”.

The Portuguese coach is convinced that the Juventus star will end up at Manchester United. However, the agreement reached between Valencia and Barcelona for André Gomes shines the spotlight back on the Juve midfielder and a possible move to Madrid.

Real Madrid decided to pull out of the race to sign Pogba a few weeks ago, citing that they couldn’t meet United’s offer. Thus far, Real’s tactic has been to remain in the background and those at the top of the club believe that Pogba, whose performances at the Euros were generally low-key, is not necessarily required to bolster one of the strongest squads in world football.

Nevertheless, André Gomes’s move to Barcelona could change everything given that Los Blancos have been put in a difficult position after losing out to their fiercest rivals.