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Pogba signing ushers Manchester United into a new era

By on August 8, 2016

Paul Pogba has finally arrived at Old Trafford with an almighty boom.

The Frenchman has completed a highly touted transfer to Manchester United from Juventus to finally end months of speculation, commanding a world record fee of over £90 million. Pogba flew in from Nice on Monday to undergo a medical at United’s Carrington training ground and penned a five-year-contract with the club he left just four years ago.

Pogba departed United in 2012, having grown frustrated by the lack of playing opportunities under Sir Alex Ferguson, but rejoins the Red Devils as one the brightest young stars in the world. United haven’t shied away from his previous departure, launching the social media campaigns #PogBack and #ReUnited.

The game-changing deal was finalized in the early hours of Tuesday morning and United fans rejoiced as the club announced the news simultaneously across multiple online platforms.

“I am delighted to rejoin United,” Pogba said in a statement released by United’s official website. “It has always been a club with a special place in my heart and I am really looking forward to working with José Mourinho. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Juventus and have some fantastic memories of a great club with players that I count as friends.

“But I feel the time is right to go back to Old Trafford. I always enjoyed playing in front of the fans and can’t wait to make my contribution to the team. This is the right club for me to achieve everything I hope to in the game.”

He will help shape a new era at United alongside summer recruits Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in a squad that is completely different from 2012. Despite arriving just five days before the start of the Premier League season, Pogba immediately becomes the lynchpin upon which new manager Jose Mourinho is expected to shape his new-look United.

There have been many questions asked of United’s waning status as a European superpower in the time Pogba has been gone, but the club’s ability to ward off interest from the likes of Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain to sign the Frenchman is a clear signal of intent. While United travelled sideways at best under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, as the Manchester Airport joked on Twitter, Mourinho aims to yank the club back into the highest echelons of world football.

Pogba is one of the most accomplished midfielders in the world, having captured four Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia trophies with Juventus and finished runners-up in the 2014/2015 Champions League final. He was also a key part of France’s Euro 2016 squad, which was defeated 1-0 by Portugal in the tournament final on home soil earlier in the summer.

There was initial trepidation regarding Mourinho’s arrival at United, with club executives and Alex Ferguson wary of handing the keys to an old rival (especially one of such volatile character and perceived short-sightedness), but Pogba’s arrival as to position United for success well beyond Mourinho’s potentially abbreviated tenure.

It’s somewhat ironic, but also oddly fitting that the very man to usher United into Mourinho’s new era was once a Ferguson reject.

Homepage photo credit: Muhammad Ashiq (cropped) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.