It was to all intents and purposes a most head-turning, mind-boggling summer transfer window with some of the biggest and snazziest moves to have happened for a very long time.
Messi – arguably the greatest player in the last two decades – finally moved, the far-reaching ramifications of which actually shifted the massive teutonic plates that have so far maintained an equilibrium in the unpredictable universe of football.
There was also the spectacular return of two prodigals, Lukaku and Ronaldo, to the English league, with the eleventh-hour move of the latter greater luminary spiking a major surge up the football Richter scale. Young rising star Sancho, still yet to have a major title under his belt and the older, vastly-experienced serial-winner Varane, made a joint entry as a delightful new duet in a shifting United setting.
Then there was also the captivating tale about the two strikers from the Three Lions, Grealish and Kane, albeit not totally unpredictable with different endings in this first episode with a ‘To be Continued…’ popping on at the end, with the continuation slated for the next episode in the Man City sequel next season, waiting to be played out under the astute directorship of the unflappable Daniel Levy.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a case of all’s well that ends well for everyone this time around. At least not for the moment for Mbappe – the young, mercurial French dynamo now already a few years clearly and undeniably on the ascendance in his laudable endeavors to reach the pinnacle as the new megastar of the future – as the highly-anticipated move to the beckoning Spanish capital didn’t materialize while the fine sand ran out in the transfer window hourglass, despite his haughty suitors belligerently hammering away on the Parisian capital club’s apparently unassailable door.
In Mbappe’s case, it’s all only a question of timing as there shouldn’t be any doubts whatsoever regarding his future as the whole world is his oyster. At the very least, PSG would not in any way want to lose his services now, after having sat so cooly at the transfer table and holding sway with their fascinating play to counteract any swashbuckling flourish by the Los Blancos.
Most surprising, however, and very oddly too, no move materialized, nor was any semblance of a movement of any sort even made by any club for the other French football dignitary, Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, in the recently shuttered summer transfer window. Even Real Madrid seemed the least bothered to show even the faintest glimmer of interest in the United midfielder, who must have been anxiously waiting for a move to be made after having obdurately refused to sign his contract extension with his current club.
And this is where the crux of our real story here begins.
Kylian Mbappe, superstar extraordinaire of the new generation, is in the final year of his contract at the Parc des Prince. So, too, is monsieur Pogba insofar as his contract at Old Trafford is concerned. And yet despite this being the case, he wasn’t in any way linked with a transfer in the final days of the window, when it really mattered.
At this juncture, let’s flashback to a time slot sometime last year where we can visualize Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, with all his customary huff-and-puff pomposity, busy scheming away late into the night amid the shadows in his office or home study in April as he laboriously masterminded the piecing together of his ambitious European Super League proposal.
The politician-turned-football-bureaucrat launched a devious and stunning assault on football when his plans were announced to create an elitist and obviously monopolistic breakaway league dominated by the usual small consortium of European big football clubs earlier this year, but thankfully the proposal was disapproved by the football gods up above and met with unprecedented backlash and unexpected wrath from supporters.
It soon emerged why Perez and the other European Super League rebel clubs were so intent on destroying football as we know it, though, because some of the continent’s biggest clubs, including Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, were drowning in crippling debt.
It was therefore rather startling to see Madrid submit multiple substantial bids for Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe this summer as Mbappe, 22, is viewed by most as the natural heir to Messi’s and Ronaldo’s thrones and the Frenchman, despite his young age, has regularly demonstrated his vast potential on an elite stage for PSG.
Mbappe’s indisputably one of football’s most valuable commodities, alongside Erling Haaland but, considering Los Blancos’ desperate financial situation which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, the news of their €200m deadline-day bid for the young French star was baffling, to say the least. Being in the final year of his contract, Perez still went through all that deliberate fuss to sign him this summer. The long-standing Madrid club president being notorious for his reputation as a slick and inscrutable maverick in the transfer poker tables, the cards in his hand were unintentionally revealed, with at least part of his real intentions leaked out on this occasion.
Madrid’s policy of signing one ‘Galactico’ each summer is no doubt laudable but will always be subject to question with regards to its sustainability, and their frantic pursuit of Mbappe this summer suggests that the lesson to be learned is still eluding them. But their latest activity in the recent window does offer a valuable clue as to what their hidden plan is in regards to Pogba.
Pogba has been incessantly linked with a switch to the Bernabeu and he’s in the final year of his contract at Old Trafford, as is Mbappe at PSG – so why haven’t Madrid made any official offers to United to lure the midfielder to Spain?
The Los Merengues’ official bids for the younger French wizard, despite being coldly rebuffed a few times by PSG, prior to the closing of the window a few days ago, clearly indicate that they would have been able to facilitate a deal for Pogba, who would have been available for a lot less than the Parc des Princes forward this summer, yet they clearly made a beeline for the 23-year-old.
It looks like Real Madrid have unintentionally but inadvertently revealed, through their Mbappe interest, that their pursuit of Pogba has quite likely ended. If at all the interest in him were still to linger on somewhere in the corridors of the Spanish capital club, he would not be a priority but a convenient, much more affordable free agent. Come next January, Mbappe would still be the numero uno target in their cross-hairs.
If that were truly the case, then there’s no better time than now for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United to try their best to convince Pogba to pledge his future, and more importantly, his allegiance, to the club he occasionally calls home when it’s convenient to his disposition and circumstances, despite what his controversial pain-in-the-butt super agent may think or say.