The Paul Pogba rumour mill never sleeps. The latest claim about the Manchester United man's future is that Juventus have moved to open talks with super-agent Mino Raiola about a potential deal. Right, then.
Pogba will enter the final year of his contract at Old Trafford next season, and although United are widely expected to trigger their one-year automatic extension option to protect their asset, the Frenchman has still been tipped to leave Manchester this summer.
Real Madrid are often seen as favourites to land Pogba, but former employers Juventus refuse to go away. According to Le10Sport, the Bianconeri are looking to steal a march by reaching out to Raiola to try to get a deal done.
There's a few issues with this one, but let's start with the obvious problem - Juventus don't have a lot of money.
The Serie A giants, who spent heavily on Matthijs de Ligt last summer and are still dealing with the financial repercussions that come with signing Cristiano Ronaldo, asked their squad to take wage cuts during the coronavirus crisis, suggesting they aren't exactly blessed with a deep spending pot.
Meeting United's demands, which are expected to be around the £100m mark, seems impossible for Juventus, who have been pursuing player swaps to try to save themselves some cash.
Miralem Pjanić, Paulo Dybala, Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot are all rumoured to have been offered around, with Juventus trying to simultaneously negotiate transfer discounts and free up some salary, but trying to do that with someone as expensive as Pogba is ambitious, to say the least.
Director Fabio Paratici effectively admitted to Sky Sport Italia that Juventus can't afford Pogba right now, insisting the Frenchman would have to lower his wage demands if they were to have any chance of signing him.
It's clear that Juventus don't have the money to strike a deal for Pogba right now. Sure, if they can offer the right players in exchange, United might be tempted to do business, but a deal now seems more unlikely than it already was.
90min understands that Pogba's priority is still to join Real this summer, so Raiola's focus will remain on trying to convince Los Blancos to pursue a deal.
For more from Tom Gott, follow him on Twitter!
Source : 90min