Gossip: Pogba seeking Man United exit; nobody interested

POGBA OFFERED BUT NOT WANTED BY BIG CLUBS
‘Mino Raiola has been calling other top European clubs in the past week to try and persuade them to go after Pogba in the summer transfer market,’ says Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, and Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl is not a man for fripperies. The interesting part about this claim is that Raiola is apparently getting no takers for the Frenchman.

He continues: ‘One of those top clubs pursued Pogba two summers ago and now feels like it dodged a bullet by not signing him and having Pogba completely change the club’s salary structure for its players.’ Now we are presuming – because it makes sense – that said ‘top club’ is Real Madrid. They were favourites to sign Pogba two summers ago and were reluctant to pay wages approaching £300,000 a week.

 

REAL YET TO DECIDE BETWEEN COURTOIS AND DE GEA
Watching David De Gea on Wednesday night should have settled matters once and for all but The Daily Telegraph say that they will make the decision in April. In fact, Thibaut Courtois is stalling over a new Chelsea contract and apparently ‘Real want him to stall until April, when they plan to make a decision over which goalkeeper to make their number one summer target’. This sounds very cheeky indeed – like asking somebody two girlfriends to wait for you while you ‘do time’.

Real are understandably leaning towards De Gea as the better keeper but they believe that the Belgian may be easier to sign. He is certainly keener, having spoken recently about his desire to move back to Madrid to be near his children.

 

MAGUIRE WANTS LEICESTER STAY
‘HARRY MAGUIRE is ready to disappoint Pep Guardiola – by pledging his future to Leicester,’ says The Sun, who claim that Manchester City are interested in the young Englishman. We suspect that any interest Manchester City had in the young Englishman evaporated when they a) heard he had a £50m price tag and b) signed Aymeric Laporte, but do carry on.

Maguire said: “I knew when I joined the Foxes that it was a big team – a big Premier League club. We’ve got a good owner who wants the club to move forward and upwards, instead of looking below us. I know the club is on an upward curve and, hopefully, I will be a part of that future.”

 

AND THE REST
West Brom are closely monitoring the progress of Ostersund manager Graham Potter…Barcelona are working on a deal to sign 21-year-old Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo from Gremio for about 30m euros…Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wants England striker Danny Welbeck to sign a new contract…Man United are keen on Dinamo Zagreb’s 19-year-old Croatian midfielder Nikola Moro.

More from Planet Sport: Find out which cricket superstars support Man Utd. (Cricket365)