Paul Scholes: Manchester United should not re-sign Paul Pogba

The former Manchester United midfielder believes paying Juventus a huge transfer fee to bring the Frenchman back to Old Trafford would be bad business.

The 22-year-old left Manchester United in 2012 and quickly established himself as a key figure in the Juventus starting line-up. The French international is now seen as one of the best young players in world football, with a summer transfer fee of around £60m being touted.

Manchester United are one of the few clubs who could afford to pay such a big sum, but Scholes has warned against doing a deal. “I don’t feel they should go back to sign Pogba for the sums being talked about having lost him for the compensation payment,” Scholes wrote in his Independent column .

“I understand that Chelsea did the same when they bought back Nemanja Matic from Benfica, but his fee was nothing like the numbers quoted for Pogba. It would feel wrong to me.” Scholes has admitted that his return from retirement in January 2012 could have been a factor in Pogba’s decision to leave the club, as he may have blocked the youngster’s path to the staring line-up.

However, Scholes feels that Pogba was not worthy of a place in the first-team at the time and United could not have predicted he would make such rapid progress.

“Pogba got a chance at United,” he said. “He had seven sub appearances for United, about what his performances at the time for the Under-21s merited.

“When I first retired in the summer of 2011, I spent the start of the next season working with Warren Joyce, the coach of the Under-21s.

“Paul was in that squad and the truth is that while he obviously had bags of potential, he was not really playing well enough in that period up to Christmas 2011 to warrant a place in the first-team squad on a permanent basis, let alone start games.

“Although I never spoke to Sir Alex about the details, the understanding in the dressing room was that Paul’s advisers just asked for too much money for his next professional deal.

“They wanted first-team money for a player who was not in the first team at that stage. United felt that was not right and stuck to their principles. He left that summer and very quickly established himself at Juventus, which can happen.”