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MANCHESTER UNITED are furious with Zinedine Zidane’s public courting of Paul Pogba.
The Real Madrid boss has made no secret of his desire to land the French midfielder.
He first talked about the proposition within weeks of his return to the Bernabeu as boss towards the end of last season.
But his shameless attempts to turn Pogba’s head have backfired. Instead, it has served only to stiffen United’s resolve to keep him.
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is particularly unhappy at what Zidane has been saying and made it clear at the weekend that he expects to start the season with Pogba, 26, in place.
Real made a derisory offer last week of £27 million plus James Rodriguez.
They value Pogba at £90m in total — but United believe the World Cup winner is worth double that.
There is no way Real or Pogba’s former club Juventus will go to that.
It was back in April, on Zidane’s return to the Bernabeu, that he first started his very public campaign to get Pogba.
The Madrid boss said: “I know him personally. He brings so much and there are few players who bring as much as he does.”
Then in an interview last month, Zidane said: “Pogba? I always answer the same thing, I will look stupid.
“The club knows what we want, there’s still time. Today, we are focused on matches, let’s see what happens.”
After Real’s bid was turned down last week Pogba failed to travel with the United squad to Cardiff for their final pre-season game against AC Milan.
The official line was that he had picked up a back injury.
Pogba said this summer that he wanted away from Old Trafford for a new challenge but he went on the pre-season tour and played and trained well.
Online Reporter