It’s quite remarkable that Man United are staring down the barrel of losing Paul Pogba on a free transfer for the second time, and it’s easy to point fingers over the management of his contract.
He does split opinion among fans and pundits purely because we all know how good he can be, but that doesn’t always shine through at Old Trafford so this is probably the natural time for him to move on if he wants one more massive transfer.
Committing his long-term future to United still isn’t completely out of the question, but a recent report from Sky Sports does suggest this is going to leave United in the worst possible position.
He’s not willing to sign a new deal during this transfer window, so it’s likely that any talks will be pushed towards January – A time when he can also openly negotiate and sign a pre-contract agreement with European clubs.
That means he and his agent can play clubs of against each other and United could be forced to pay more than they want to avoid losing him for nothing, so it will be interesting to see if they try to push him out in this window to avoid that situation.
Of course it could also come down to sporting ambition and if United are firing after adding some impressive signings then he might be more inclined to stay, but this could be a very messy situation.