ManU has "thrashed out a huge financial package" with Paul Pogba as his record-breaking move from Juventus "inches closer by the day," according to Gaughan, King & Jones of the London DAILY MAIL. The central midfielder has agreed to terms "on a prospective five-year contract" worth £220,000 ($291,000) a week after tax. Juventus has rejected ManU’s opening offer, "thought to be in the region" of £86M ($114M), but its resolve "is to be severely tested in the coming days." ManU Exec Vice-Chair Ed Woodward has convinced both the 23-year-old and his agent, Mino Raiola, that "the excitement surrounding Jose Mourinho’s new dawn at Old Trafford is worth forgoing a season of Champions League football." Woodward was "not on Tuesday afternoon’s flight to China for this summer’s pre-season tour, with his priority firmly on negotiating the most high-profile transfer" in club history. Juventus is "desperate" not to lose its talisman, although it has "made a number of prominent signings" this summer to "cushion the potential blow." Mourinho "has been confident of landing Pogba all summer" (DAILY MAIL, 7/20).
FANS SNUBBED: In London, Paul Hirst reported hundreds of ManU fans "were left angry and disappointed" on Tuesday after "being snubbed by their heroes as they arrived at their team hotel in Shanghai." Around 250 supporters, some of whom had traveled from as far away as N.Y. and Singapore, "started to congregate outside the five-star Kerry Hotel in the Pudong district of Shanghai" from 9am local time to greet the squad at the start of its week-long tour of China. After "waiting for four hours in the sweltering 35C heat," ManU's tour bus arrived, "but rather than drop the players off in front of reception, the driver swung the bus round the back of the hotel and they alighted at the VIP entrance instead" (LONDON TIMES, 7/20).
