JUVENTUS aren’t giving up hope that they will be able to sign Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba before the current window closes.

The Italian transfer window doesn’t close until September 2 and the Italian giants are desperately scrambling around to raise the funds.

They are trying to offload Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic who rejected a switch to United and Bayern Munich.

Selling Paulo Dybala who rejected both United and Tottenham Hotspur last week to Paris Saint-Germain is also possible if Real Madrid make a move for Neymar.

Real boss Zinedine Zidane is still keen on Pogba but Real president Florentino Pérez prefers Neymar and has offered him a £700,000 a week contract.

United won’t stand in the way of Pogba leaving Old Trafford even though the Premier League transfer window is closed and they won’t be able to sign a replacement.

And Juventus have three weeks to raise the £150million transfer fee that United have placed on his head to make the deal happen.

Pogba is likely to start for United on Sunday when they start their Premier League campaign against Chelsea at Old Trafford (4.30pm).

The Frenchman was inconsistent for the Red Devils last season and has been linked with Juve and Real Madrid this summer.

But with the transfer window now shut in England, United would not be able to replace Pogba if he left.
With the club already light on options it would seem unlikely that Ed Woodward would sanction a move.

Gary Neville thinks Ole Gunnar Solskjaer probably would sell Pogba in an ideal world but he can’t because of the damage it would do in the short-term.

“I think there are three or four players at Old Trafford who have higher levels of quality that in a perfect world, Ole would probably like them all out at once,” he said.

“But actually, if they left it would weaken the team that badly it’d mean that they wouldn’t challenge for the Champions League etc.

“I think what Ole has to do is to get rid of one at a time. I think it’s a clever transition out of what has been a poor transfer strategy for the last four or five years.

“You can’t get out of it in one year, it’s going to take two or three years of good culture and tone, in terms of what they’re doing, to get out of what they’ve done.

“You can’t lose Lukaku, Pogba, [David] de Gea, [Anthony] Martial all in one – you’d be absolutely decimated. The dressing room would be shot to pieces. You could maybe lose them over a period of two to three years if they wanted to leave.”

Source:- ExpressUK