Allegri hopeful of Pogba stay

Paul Pogba is widely expected to re-join Manchester United, but Massimiliano Allegri is hopeful the France star will stay at Juventus.

Massimiliano Allegri remains confident that Paul Pogba will reject the overtures of Manchester United to remain at Juventus.

Pogba moved to Juve from United in 2012 and has won four Serie A titles in Turin, while also establishing himself as one of the best talents in world football.

However, reports suggest the France international is closing on a return to Old Trafford for a world-record transfer fee as manager Jose Mourinho continues to rebuild his squad after replacing Louis van Gaal.

Juve head coach Allegri is adamant that Pogba is still a part of his squad, though, and says the signings of Dani Alves, Medhi Benatia, Miralem Pjanic and Marko Pjaca means the Serie A champions will be in a strong position at the end of the transfer window.

“Right now, Pogba is currently a Juve player,” he told a news conference ahead of Juve’s International Champions Cup game against Melbourne Victory.

“We do not know what will happen in the course of the next week, but we are confident.

“Dani Alves, Benatia, Pjanic and Pjaca have arrived so at the end of the transfer window we’ll have a very strong team.”

Mourinho himself hinted that Pogba is indeed on United’s shortlist, but that the club have other targets in mind should they be unable to reach a deal for the 23-year-old.

“We set four targets for us, we got three of them and we are going to get the fourth,” Mourinho said on Thursday.

“We established the profile of four players to improve the squad, to give us more options, especially adapted to my way of thinking about football.

“Everybody speaks about one, but it wouldn’t be a surprise for me if it is not him and it is another one because we went for profile.

“We have two more options in front of us and we are going to close one.”