Fabio Paratici: Paul Pogba ‘isn’t in Juventus’ thoughts’

Paul Pogba is unsettled at Manchester United. I don’t think it takes a club insider or somebody who follows the club as close as anybody to tell you that. You see the environment currently around the club, the way he’s being deployed by his current manager and all signs point toward frustration start to hit an all-time high for the 25-year-old French midfielder who returned to the Red Devils two years ago.

But if you’re expecting the Dab Daddy to come back to the same club where he exploded onto the scene earlier this decade, you might want to re-adjust those hopes a little bit.

We have transfer talk, courtesy of Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici. And we have transfer talk about a couple of the biggest names that don’t rhyme with Schmistiano Schmonaldo that were linked to Juve over the summer — one that currently plays in Italy and one in Pogba that has been heavily linked with calling Italy his address once again.

“Milinkovic Savic is a great footballer, but we never discussed him: neither with him nor with Lazio. Same situation with Pogba, a person we care about and to whom we are very attached. But we never thought about it and at the moment he isn’t in our thoughts.”

(Source: Gianluca Di Marzio)

OK, so who’s going to tell Tuttosport about this?

I’m just wondering because if you tell them that Juve’s soon-to-be Paratici-led sporting deportment has categorically ruled out a move for Pogba and said that they never had nay kind of discussions with Lazio for Milinkovic-Savic and you’re killing a whole lot of their January transfer window — and every international break leading up to it — plans.

(Then again, it’s not like Juve ruling out a transfer target before has stopped them from front page stories with big pictures on the cover, right?)

As much as I want to think that Paratici and Co. have never thought about Pogba re-joining the Italian champions at some point — which would almost certainly have to be the summer of 2019 at the very earliest — the mere idea of it had to at least be thrown out there ... right? I mean, we’re coming off one of the most unpredictable and biggest-spending summers we’ve ever seen Juventus take part in. We were openly talking about Juventus challenging in the Champions League more than they have in years ... and that was before they even played an official game.

With how much money Juve spent this summer, who knows if they would even be able to afford a reunion with Pogba. But, with things obviously not working in Manchester and not looking like they’re going to get better, there are only a few places where Pogba could possibly go. He’s already shown that he’s willing to go back to one club he’s familiar with, right?