Fabrizio Romano has given his thoughts on Paul Pogba’s future at Manchester United following Ralf Rangnick’s arrival at Old Trafford.
The French midfielder is on the verge of entering the final six months of his deal at the club, however, the club have reportedly been trying since the summer to try and get that deal extended.
It was reported by ESPN a few weeks ago that the club were ‘prepared to lose Paul Pogba for free next summer after accepting the midfielder will not sign a new contract at Old Trafford’, but that was under the old regime of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has since departed the club, with Rangnick now in charge on an interim basis.
Speaking on The United Stand YouTube channel, Romano explained what effect the change at the top might have on the contract negotiations and the timescale in which a deal could potentially be completed.
He said: “Bringing Rangnick is going to help also to have some clarity for the player and also Man United’s side on this story, because having Ole always on the brink of being fired was a problem.
“So I’m sure that Man Utd will start pressing Pogba, telling him ‘okay, now we have a project, we know who is the interim manager, but he will be part of the board as a consultant in the coming months, so we know what is the project, we know who are the managers that we want to hire’.
“So I’m sure that they will talk again with Pogba, with [agent Mino] Raiola and they will wait for an answer. I don’t see Pogba deciding before Christmas or in January – I think he will take some time again. But at the same point, having clarity is always helping.”
TIF Thoughts on Fabrizio Romano’s comments about Paul Pogba and Manchester United…
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A change in manager certainly does change things for all parties, because it’s still unknown precisely what Rangnick will be able to do for Manchester United.
He could be a roaring success that has the club challenging for trophies immediately, which might tempt Pogba to stick around a little bit longer, or he could continue the downward spiral that his predecessor had set the club on before he was replaced.
Although, the timing of all this should certainly leave Manchester United sweating, seeing as Pogba would be free to talk to any foreign club come 1st January.
Therefore, it would be beneficial for them to try and get the deal wrapped up as soon as possible, because that way, Pogba won’t have the distraction of dealing with other clubs at the same time and can instead focus purely on the offer from Old Trafford.
So this is going to be an interesting one to keep an eye on as we approach the January transfer window and whether or not a deal can be struck in enough time, or if Manchester United are going to be at risk of losing their record signing.
In other news: ‘What I’m told from people close to Rangnick’ – Romano drops interesting transfer claim at MUFC