Wayne Rooney has been left excited by the imminent arrival of Paul Pogba this summer, saying that the Frenchman has unfinished business at Old Trafford.
Pogba left United on a free transfer to Juventus 4 years ago, but it is highly likely that the midfielder will make a return to Manchester for a fee of around £100m.
Wayne Rooney, who will know Pogba well from his time at United, says that although the club are eager for him to arrive, it is Pogba himself who needs to be excited.
“I hope he is going to want to return to United and prove he’s a top-class player. If he is excited to play for us, we’ll be excited to have him back.” Rooney told the Daily Mail.
“I’m sure he’ll feel there is unfinished business, and it would be a very big statement by the club if they can make it happen.”
Wayne Rooney also joked about the less pleasant moments of Pogba’s first stay at United. Describing the bumps and bruises he earned training along side the midfielder.
“The bruises,” he added. “He was one of those players who, when you trained against him, somehow he would just hurt you. A knee in your side, bump into you, I don’t think he meant to do it, but it just happened. You didn’t even need to get into a tackle. Just go next to him and you’d find an elbow or some other sharp bit. So, if he comes, I’m looking forward to that again! But he had great ability, some of the things he could do, and he’s gone up a level since he left us.”
Rooney also had good words for new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swede scored an overhead kick inside the opening four minutes of his debut for United on Saturday, and Rooney says his arrival will help to get the best out of everyone in the team.
“He’s one of the best strikers, and a big personality. You can see he wants to be a really important player for us,” Rooney said.
“After training, he is already talking about how we can get the best out of each other, you can see he’s got this great work ethic.”
“I think the players feel this is more like the old Manchester United. It’s not just the new signings, we’ve got Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford from last season who made such an impact.”
“We’re in a very good spot now, we think we can challenge for the Premier League, and we want to put a marker down, in the Community Shield with Leicester.”
“I know it’s a one-off game, but we want to show we can win a trophy early on – we feel that’s an important event for us.”
[Quotes via Daily Mail]