Soccer

Manchester United reject Barca’s €50m bid for Pogba

Catalan giants also offered Yerry Mina and André Gomes as part of the deal

Paul Pogba: Manchester United are hoping the World Cup winner can reproduce the form he showed with France this summer. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty

Tue Aug 7 2018 - 21:55

Manchester United have turned down a bid from Barcelona for Paul Pogba after the La Liga club offered €50 million plus players Yerry Mina and André Gomes for the Frenchman.

United do not want to sell the 25-year-old midfielder and certainly not for a fee almost half of what they paid for him two years ago.

Pogba was outstanding in midfield for France as they won the World Cup and United want to keep him and see him reproduce that form for his club during the upcoming season.

Pogba arrived in Russia after an unconvincing season at club level with the United manager, José Mourinho, leaving him out of the team on a number of occasions.

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Mourinho, has endured a frustrating transfer window with the club so far signing the Brazil midfielder Fred for €61 million, the 19-year-old full-back Diogo Dalot (€21 million) from Porto and the back-up goalkeeper Lee Grant (€2m).

The Portuguese manager has urged the club to complete more signings before the English window closes on Thursday and would not sanction the sale of Pogba with the squad so thin.

After the friendly defeat against Bayern Munich on Sunday, Mourinho told MUTV: “My CEO knows what I want and I still have a few days to wait and see what happens. The other clubs who compete with us are really strong and already have fantastic teams. Or they are investing massively like Liverpool, who are buying everything and everybody. If we don’t make our team better, it will be a difficult season for us.”

Barcelona are keen to offload Mina with Everton interested in the Colombian centre-back while Gomes has failed to have an impact at Barcelona following his €30m move from Valencia in 2016.

United have expressed an interest in the Bayern Munich centre-back Jérôme Boateng but are not prepared to pay the Bundesliga club’s asking price of €60m.

Bournemouth have finally captured Colombia central midfielder Jefferson Lerma from Levante on a five-year deal for a club record fee, the Premier League team announced on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old, whose transfer is subject to international clearance, played in all of Colombia's games at this year's World Cup in Russia, including the last 16 loss to England. The transfer fee for Lerma was not disclosed, but reports suggest that he was moving for €27 million, which beats the previous record of €22 million the club paid for Dutch defender Nathan Ake from Chelsea last year.

Fulham have signed defender Calum Chambers on a season-long loan from Arsenal.

– Guardian and agencies

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