Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that getting Paul Pogba to return to Old Trafford was no easy task.
The Frenchman came back to United in a world record deal (€110 million) over the summer, but it could have been a different case with Mourinho revealing he faced stiff competition for his signature.
It was reported all summer that the Red Devils were battling it out with European champions Real Madrid to sign Pogba from Italian giants Juventus.
“It was hard to convince him, I had many [conversations] on the phone, lots of SMS,” Mourinho told Goal in a recent interview.
“I think he was getting one in the morning from the manager from another big club and one in the afternoon from myself. I had to try hard to convince him to choose us instead of the other one.”
Pogba joined Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in signing for United during the transfer window despite the lure of Champions League football, a competition Mourinho wants a quick return to.
“The Champions League without Manchester United is not the Champions League and Manchester United without the Champions League is not Manchester United…so this is the first big step,” he added.
“But to get back to the Champions League we need to do well in the Premier League, so the first step is to recover the self-esteem, which I think we are doing.”
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