Man Utd close to announcing world record Paul Pogba transfer with £100m fee thought to be agreed

There is some optimism that could happen before the Community Shield against Leicester City on Sunday, although given the drawn out nature of the transfer saga, sources at Old Trafford have been reluctant to make predictions about a specific timeframe.

There have been suggestions that Pogba is reticent about returning to the club he left in acrimonious circumstances four years ago and has been holding out for Real Madrid to re-enter the race but the Spanish club, fearful of breaking the wage structure in the dressing room, have also balked at the exorbitant costs. Juventus have already spent a large slice of the money they expect to receive for Pogba by signing Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli for £75.3 million.

It is thought Juventus would receive a small additional payment on top of a huge upfront fee in the event Pogba signed a contract renewal at United further down the line, while the size of the deal will be swelled significantly – possibly up to or past the £100 million mark - by a huge payment to the player’s agent, Mino Raiola, a bill that is expected to be divided equally between the clubs.

“We are going to sign one more player, that’s for sure,” Mourinho said tonight. “I don’t want to speak about Paul because he’s a Juventus player and I don’t like other managers speaking about my players. I don’t speak about their players but the reality is we are going to sign one more player.

“The market closes as you know on August 31 so we have plenty of time to do that but obviously I would like to do it before the Premier League starts.”

Rooney was the name in the spotlight on Wednesday, though, as he marked 12 years at Old Trafford with a testimonial match against his former club, Everton, the proceeds of which are going to a variety of charities. The United and England captain signed a 5½ year contract worth £300,000 a week in February 2014 that ties him to the club until June 2019, four months shy of his 34th birthday. Rooney, who will be 31 in October, has rebuffed a number of lucrative offers to move to China over the past year but the player’s agent, Paul Stretford, raised the prospect earlier of his client signing another deal with United down the line, even if that seems improbable at this stage.

“Wayne has gone public in stating that he intends to see out his current contract,” Stretford told talkSPORT. “Should Man United make it clear they want him to stay beyond [2019], I think we’ll be sitting down very quickly and ensuring that will happen.”

Sam Allardyce, the new England manager, was at Old Trafford to run the rule over Rooney as well as an assortment of other players likely to be of interest to him before he names his first squad later this month ahead of the opening World Cup qualifying match against Slovakia on September 4. Marcus Rashford, who replaced Rooney in the 53rd minute, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard and Michael Carrick were all in action in addition to the Everton quartet of John Stones, Ross Barkley, Leighton Baines and Tom Cleverley.

Allardyce was flanked on either side in the directors’ box by David Moyes, the former United manager who has succeeded him at Sunderland, and Sir Alex Ferguson.

Old Trafford got a first glimpse of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had marked his United debut against Galatasaray in Gothenburg last Saturday, with a scissor kick goal. The former Sweden striker, who lasted 64 minutes before being withdrawn, had two sights of goal after twice being teed up by Rooney but was denied on both occasions by Everton’s new goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg.

At the other end of the pitch, Barkley was denied by a good save from David De Gea and Romelu Lukaku should have done better after getting in between Eric Bailly and Daley Blind, United’s centre-halves, only to steer a header wide from an excellent position.

Everton suffered an injury scarce when midfielder Muhamed Besic was substitute with a knee problem in the 78th minute.