Prepare yourself for plenty of Pogback 2.0 stories the next six weeks (and beyond)

We’ve already heard the first couple rounds of rumors. They’re not going away. They’re here to stay and, most likely opposite of how quickly the Cristiano Ronaldo rumors started before Andrea Agnelli was jetting off to Greece for a photo opp and a glass of champagne, these are going to hang around much longer than most transfer rumor cycles.

Paul Pogba returning to Juventus isn’t really a thing the way Ronaldo-to-Juventus became a thing just yet.

But the rumors are here — and they ain’t leaving.

Monday brought us the reporting from Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio that Juventus’ top directors — presumably Fabio Paratici and the new-look management team — met with super agent Mino Raiola to discuss a host of things. There’s obviously Moise Kean, the hot-shot teenage striker who may or may not go out on loan come the January window. But, as is pretty much everybody’s line of thinking, the subject of Pogba’s future had to be broached at least a little bit.

And while the reports of a Juve-Raiola sitdown taking place, it seems like it’s just the start of a rumor cycle that is about to get kicked into overdrive even before the January transfer window officially arrives in a couple of weeks.

Tuttosport, Gazzetta dello Sport, everybody is about to hop in on the fun.

Right, “fun.”

It’s hard to get around it or avoid it at this point. Pogba’s future is going to be talked about over and over and over again no matter if he’s staying or going at any point of the 2019 calendar year. The situation at Manchester United is one that surely Pogba nor Raiola could have thought was even in the cards when we got the first edition of Pogback and the insufferable hype machine that came with it. (Thanks again for that, adidas.)

Who really knows what is happening at United these days. The club is such a mess both on the field with a once-great manager who’s stubborn as hell and a money-hungry ownership group that has really put its priorities all out of whack.

But one thing is for certain: The Italian media — as well as the English papers — will have a field day with Pogba’s supposed uncertain status in Manchester. They will eat it alive again ... and again ... and again ... and leave us wishing there were more rumors about the status of Stefano Sturaro. Maybe, if you’re into that sort of thing.