Barca for Neymar, Madrid for Pogba: Why it was a no-bite all-bark situation

The Daily Mail’s man in Spain Pete Jenson has written a lengthy and insightful piece about the proposed Neymar and Paul Pogba moves to Barcelona and Real Madrid never actually happening because ‘neither club ever really had the cash or the conviction to make them happen’.

In the sixth paragraph he writes: ‘Pundits lined up to say that if he did not want to stay then he was better sold and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is understood to have been privately in favour of a sale as long as it was done early in the summer and brought in huge funds to be reinvested.’

But obviously that’s immaterial because Real Madrid never got serious in their pursuit of Pogba and never made an actual bid. But does that stop the headlines? Does it balls. From that one line from Jenson in an article about the giants of Spanish football, we are treated to…

‘Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s private stance on Paul Pogba transfer after Real Madrid move collapses’ – Daily Mirror.

We’re pretty sure a ‘Real Madrid move’ with no actual ‘Real Madrid offer’ cannot ‘collapse’.

‘Solskjaer favoured Man Utd selling Pogba’ – Tribal Football.

Well yes, if it brought in ‘huge funds’, which was never gonna happen.

‘Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ‘in favour’ of Manchester United selling Paul Pogba on two conditions’ – Metro.

And those ‘two conditions’ became irrelevant about three months ago.

But still, if it gets you top of Google for ‘Pogba’, you have basically won the internet.