Jose Mourinho wanted four first team players according to the man himself at his press conference during the week. He already has three of them and now it would appear that the biggest signing of the summer is edging ever closer to completion.
We made a nucleus of four priorities, four positions to give a certain balance to the squad, to give a certain push in terms of quality and the qualities I need and want.
Bailly, Mkhitaryan and Ibrahimovic are signed and now, the word overnight is that negotiations to bring Paul Pogba back to Old Trafford have taken a few steps forward. According to Gianluca Di Marzio among others, a deal has been agreed in principle with Pogba over a wage packet that would see the 23 year old earn over £11 million per year after tax.
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And whatever about the wages aspect of the deal, it's the eye-watering transfer fee that will garner the most attention. With Real Madrid also interested it is thought that United have looked down the back of the Old Trafford couches and come up with a widely reported figure of £103 million (€120 million) to place in Juventus' coffers as soon as Euro 2016 has come to an end.
Juventus would be off their heads to reject ONE HUNDRED MILLION FLAMING POUNDS for Pogba.
— Alex Shaw (@AlexShawESPN) July 6, 2016
Indeed they would. However, it looks for all the world that it's going to happen so all we can do is sit it out and wait for the football world to come to an end once more.
Moving over to West Ham and their search for a marquee striker. The club's chairman David Sullivan has revealed that they have made an offer of £150,000 a week to bring Carlos Tevez back to the east end of London.
Tevez, who returned to Boca Juniors last season was thinking more in the region of £250,000 to make the move back to London. Sullivan was having none of it.
We tried to get Tevez but he wanted £250,000 a week. In his last year at Juventus he was great. But 250 grand a week? He’ll probably stay where he is now, but he doesn’t pay a lot of tax down there.
All this business ‘I love West Ham. Well, it’s ‘I love West Ham if they give me 250 grand a week.’ So how much love is that for West Ham? I actually offered him 150 grand a week to come back plus bonuses.
I thought that was an incredible offer for someone who loves West Ham. It wasn’t a publicity stunt, I saw him being our No.1 striker. I was hoping he would reproduce what he did at Juventus a year ago. He was a fantastic player. But where do you draw the line with what you are prepared to pay?
Either Sullivan is blindly lying through his teeth or Tevez had absolutely no intention of moving back to West Ham and was just chancing his arm.
