Manchester United are likely to be one of the teams that will be most active in the upcoming summer transfer market, but one of their wantaway stars may be held to an automatic year-long contract extension.
According to AS, Paul Pogba’s desire to leave the Old Trafford outfit could be curtailed if United’s CEO, Ed Woodward, triggers the clause in his contract which will ensure the Frenchman has to stay at United for an extra 12 months.
Such a move from his current employers would anger both Pogba and his agent, Mino Raiola, per AS as re-reported by The Sun, as it’s suggested via their source that the Red Devils would be better off trying to find a mutual agreement to figure out his future one way or another.
The midfielder’s five-year contract runs out in the summer of 2021, so it’s entirely possible that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would try to broker a new deal in the near future to stop the player entering the latter stages of the contract without any deal in place.
That is assuming that Woodward doesn’t invoke that unilateral clause to extend.
Not only that, but AS cited by The Sun also note that it’s now or never for Pogba to move to Real Madrid.
The coronavirus situation could lower player values across the board, but it appears that Los Blancos aren’t going to wait for ever to try and acquire the player, and one who has long been admired by Zinedine Zidane, per MARCA.
Pogba has been limited to just eight appearances so far this season due to injury, but despite his absence, United have remained in contention for a top-four finish in the Premier League as well as the FA Cup and Europa League.
Solskjaer’s men were in fact on an 11-game unbeaten streak prior to the stoppage in football, and so while extending Pogba’s deal to strengthen their position in the event of a sale is a smart move, it’s questionable as to whether it would be done with the intention of keeping him for the long term, especially if it were to anger him as suggested above.