Man United want to open talks with Paul Pogba about extending his contract but the midfield star wants an eye-watering £500k-a-week to sign, according to the Sun.
His current deal – worth a reported £300k-a-week – runs out in 2021 and United have a one-year option on top of that that. They want to turn that into a three-year extension, which would keep him at Old Trafford until 2024.
The wage increase would take him up to near-parity with Alexis Sanchez, who is on £505k-a-week.
This comes in the wake of interest from Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid and Pogba, 26, stirred the pot when he described the Spanish giants as a “dream club for any player” on the recent international break.
The Sun claims contract talks will start next week, with agent Mino Raiola aware of how desperate manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is to keep him.
OPINION
And wages in the Premier League keep going up and up. Is Pogba worth £500,000-a-week? Obviously it’s a question that can’t be looked at in isolation, but rather in context of the current market. It’s a ridiculous sum of money but football is a high-stakes game these days and the riches on offer would have been unthinkable a decade ago. If you look at Alexis Sanchez, then Pogba is obviously worth more than the former Arsenal attacker. He’s flopped massively at Old Trafford, but this shows the dangers of long contracts and big wages. Arsenal are finding the same with Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan – the latter, ironically, the player that moved the other way in the Sanchez deal. That hasn’t worked out for either team. Pogba is an enigma. On his game he’s unplayable and he proved that in the early days of Solskjaer’s reign with four goals in his first three league games. However, he’s only scored four since and none in his last six, with a solitary assist his only attacking returns. Of course, he’s not there just to score goals but he has been anonymous in the last few games, not least the 2-1 defeat at Wolves. However, his talent is undeniable. If Man United could get rid of Sanchez and pay Pogba the extra they’ll have done some really good business.