Manchester United should be proud of Pogba fee – Mourinho

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Manchester United should be proud they are going to break the world transfer record fee by signing Paul Pogba, manager Jose Mourinho has said.

On Sunday Juventus gave Pogba permission to undergo a medical with United and he is expected in Manchester on Monday for this reason. The Frenchman would be returning to Old Trafford just four years after leaving to join the Italian club for £800,000.

Mourinho said: “I don’t think Real Madrid was upset when they broke the record with Gareth Bale or when they broke the record with Cristiano [Ronaldo]. I think that was a world record too.

“When other people break records, I don’t think it’s a reason to be sad. I think it’s a reason to be proud with the dimension of the club that can do that and can attract players of this dimension.

“If you ask if I think it is a lot of money, I think football is crazy. The market has become crazy. What you think this season is crazy, you realise that three years later it’s not crazy any more.

“What is expensive and what is not expensive in football, I don’t know any more. I just know that he’s a big player that is going, for sure, to be important for a big club like Man United. And I’m sure that every Man United fan around the world will be proud to belong to such a big club.”

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp both spoke out about the size of the fee. That led to Mourinho commenting that it is “not ethical” for managers from other clubs to be talking about United’s business.

Former United captain Rio Ferdinand believes that United had to make the investment, telling BT Sport: “If he becomes as influential as, say, Paul Scholes [or] Patrick Vieira, then it’s money well spent. You have to speculate.”