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DEBUNKING SOME MYTHS ABOUT PAUL POGBA’S TRANSFER

during the UEFA EURO 2016 Final match between Portugal and France at Stade de France on July 10, 2016 in Paris, France.

The transfer that promised to be quick and pain free has turned into anything but. José Mourinho said in a press conference that Manchester United have plenty of alternatives to Paul Pogba, and won’t be held ransom by any club this summer. When in charge of Chelsea, Mourinho acted quickly with his senior management team when dealing with transfers – and he’d have expected the same from Manchester United.

However, when negotiating for a player that demands the world-record fee, it’s not going to happen overnight. There are three people in the room – along with lawyers – that all need to happily agree with one another. Reputations on the line and ego’s to please.

Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s executive-chairman, Giuseppe Marotta, CEO of Juventus, and Mino Raiola, Paul Pogba’s agent, are the three men in the room discussing the price of the transfer, his wages, and the biggest stumbling block of all, who pays Raiola his 20% commission of completing the transfer.

Fans are befuddled as to why this world-record signing hasn’t been completed yet? There’s still so much to agree on. As well as negotiations for Pogba, Marotta’s also been busy with the recent purchase of Gonzalo Higuaín from Napoli, for a whopping £75m.

A common myth surrounding this world-record transfer is that Manchester United are spending far too much money for a player. It might be the case that Pogba isn’t worth the reported €130m, and on footballing ability alone, you’d agree with that statement, but that’s not to say that the Red Devils can’t comfortably afford the Frenchman.

Manchester United are currently on course to be the first football team in history to break the £500m barrier for turnover in a single year. That’s an awful lot of money. If we break that down, the money used for purchasing the Juventus midfielder is roughly around 20% of the club’s annual revenue – which is, year-on-year, increasing.

Comparing that to Arsenal, who in 2013 recorded a £280.4m turnover, in which they spent £42.5m on Mesut Özil, the percentage of their annual revenue spent on the German attacking maestro was just under 16%. That makes it 4% less than what Manchester United are using to spend on a world-record transfer.

When everything’s put out in the open and said in relative terms, the price paid for Pogba by Manchester United isn’t as extortionate as it is being made out to be. If a club like Arsenal were offering to pay £100m for Pogba (wages to also be added on), possibly over a third of their annual revenue, then questions would be raised and FFP would be called into action.

Addressing the actual transfer itself, there are other things to weigh up that don’t include Pogba’s footballing ability. If we’re talking £100m for a player just on his football prowess at the age of 23-years-old, before his prime years, then yes, it’s not the wisest of transfers.

However, it’s no secret that Manchester United are one of the most profitable sporting clubs in the world. Through their commercial strength, Richard Arnold, the Group Director of Manchester United, and others have turned the Red Devils into a well-oiled, money-making machine.

And with that being said, and Pogba’s unbelievable marketability, the two can pair up and make an absolute killing on image rights and shirt sales. Adidas take around 80% of the cut on every Manchester United shirt sold, so you may be thinking that doesn’t really help the club, but it does. If adidas continually see profit when in partnership with the Red Devils, they’re going to want to keep an agreement with the club, allowing the commercial side of Manchester United to profit even more. Considering their current deal is worth £750m over 10 years, when negotiating next, it puts the club in a stronger bargaining position.

Finally, Pogba may cost a small fortune now, at the age of 23, but when Real Madrid come knocking for him in his prime years – which they most definitely will – his resale value could be even more than what Manchester United paid for, allowing them to land in the green and not the red.

There are many things to weigh up, but to say Manchester United are out of their comfort zone in purchasing Pogba is just factually incorrect. They have the money to spend on Pogba and others this transfer window. They have the power commercially to make use of this deal, and perhaps most importantly, Pogba’s not exactly a bad footballer, is he?