Paul Pogba turned down the chance to join Chelsea in a £62m move during the past transfer window, according to Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport.

If true, then I can totally understand why the French international decided to stay in Turin for at least one more season.

I think the summer before a major international tournament is an extremely important one for a footballer.

It’s a transfer window where players think about the sport rather than just money. Becoming unsettled and struggling for form can be fatal in the lead up to a big tournament.

Obviously Chelsea are a great European club and would have offered Pogba a huge pay rise, £8.7m a year supposedly. But a transfer would have also uprooted him from Italy and had him trying to settle down back in England, prove himself worthy of starting every week at Stamford Bridge and get used to his new team’s style and his teammates.

Why would you give yourself that stress a year before a European Championships in which your homeland is hosting?

I do think that the 2015/16 season will be Pogba’s last with La Vecchia Signora. Next summer he’ll be more than ready to make a huge switch elsewhere.

But this season at Juve, after the departures of Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal, the twenty-two year old will be told to lead the bianconeri’s midfield and become the main star!

Staying with the Serie A champions this term means he still has a fine wage and still gets to play in the Champions League.

But more importantly he will be firmly established in a side that has been built around him and he’ll be settled leading into next summers Euros.

He may have done all that at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea but why would he risk it?

To be honest, I fully expect Paul Pogba to flourish as Juve’s new number ten this season. He should relish the responsibility that Massimiliano Allegri will thrust upon him this term and it will make a happy, content player for France next summer.

His boss at Juventus has already warned the player that a lot is expected of him this season:

“In this sense, he will have the greatest responsibility”

 

“Wearing this number (ten) will not be an easy thing because this jersey has been worn by the great players of Juventus.” 

The midfield maestro could replicate two other former Juve stars; Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane and  star for France at a major final!

Then he’ll make a monstrous move next season. But probably to FC Barcelona and not Chelsea, I’d imagine the Catalan giants have already got a deal set up for 2016.

Posted on September 5th, 2015 by scott
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