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Could transfer disruption see Paul Pogba stay at Manchester United?

With many football clubs facing financial difficulties off the back of the Covid-19 outbreak, the...



Could transfer disruption see...
Soccer

Could transfer disruption see Paul Pogba stay at Manchester United?

With many football clubs facing financial difficulties off the back of the Covid-19 outbreak, there is a chance expected moves like that of Paul Pogba away from Old Trafford may not happen.

The French World Cup winner has been strongly linked with a transfer away from Manchester United for some time, and Daniel Harris joined OTB AM this morning to discuss how the current global pandemic may impact big-name moves.

"Specifically with Jadon Sancho, it doesn't look like he wants to go home to England - [Manchester] United I guess will be able to offer enough to make Dortmund sell, whether it's the amount they would have paid had none of this happened, or a slightly reduced amount given everyone's got a bit less money.

"I'd be pretty shocked if anyone had the money to buy Paul Pogba though. PSG could do it if they sold Neymar, but who's got the money or even the inclination to buy Neymar? Probably no-one.

"I'm sure we will see very few big deals because very few clubs have enough money to handle what's going on, and still be able to do that. We'll see one or two probably, because there will be a couple of clubs that will have enough for one big deal. But I don't think we'll see very much.

"Swaps are rare, because it's rare players will want to go to the club and the country and want to swap with someone. We don't see a lot of them because there's so much involved - do the players both want to go to the opposing clubs? Do they want to live in the opposing country or city? Does the money work? Is there room for them?

"We might see loans more but I'd be relatively surprised if we saw swaps because it just requires so many things that don't have anything to do with money at all really."

Harris added that the current worldwide situation makes it increasingly difficult to predict what will happen in the football markets.

"It's really difficult to talk about who's going to be buying who until we know what the financial damage of this whole thing is. It may be that players who are worth a lot of money become worth less money. They become little enough that it's not even worth selling them.

"It may be that with all players... it is very hard to keep a player that wants to leave. Usually it becomes about the clubs agreeing a price.

"Just because football is this multi-billion pound industry, just because football clubs make a load of money, doesn't mean that they don't necessarily operate on the margins.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Paul Pogba (right) after the final whistle during the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester.

"You might have football clubs who turn over a lot of money but the margin between them turning over a lot of money and being in trouble can be quite slim.

"I think until we know the extent of what this is going to cost, it's really hard to measure who is going to go anywhere and who is going to be in what position."

Manchester United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward spoke at the weekend about the difficulties even top clubs will have shelling out money on big-name signings in the short-term.

"Nobody should be under any illusions about the scale of challenge facing everyone in football and it may not be 'business as usual' for any clubs, including ourselves, in the transfer market this summer," he told a United Fans' Forum.

"As ever our priority is the success of team, but we need visibility of the impact across the whole industry, including timings of the transfer window, and the wider financial picture, before we can talk about a return to normality."

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Coronavirus Daniel Harris Ed Woodward Man United Manchester United Off The Ball Otb Am Paul Pogba