Manchester United Transfer News: Paul Pogba Rumours Ruled out by Andrea Pirlo

Paul Pogba might leave Serie A side Juventus in the near future. But he won't play for Manchester United again.

At least that's the view of ageing Juve playmaker Andrea Pirlo. The well-regarded Italy international told media outlet Telefoot, per Manchester Evening News reporter Samuel Luckhurst, that United will have to move on from the player they wasted in 2012.

"For whatever reasons they chose not to give him a chance—and that is a mistake they will have to live with now. I can’t see that he (Pogba) will ever return to Manchester United," stated Pirlo.

Those are strong words but not ones without merit. It still beggars belief that United couldn't make things work with a prospect as naturally gifted as Pogba.

Joosep Martinson/Getty Images

After all, this is a club that spent years trying, and mostly failing, to adequately replace midfield talisman Roy Keane. In fact, United's best era might have been the years when Keane's destructive tendencies were complemented by Paul Scholes' creative skill at the heart of midfield.

It's ironic that United lost a player who combines both in Pogba. He's a towering physical powerhouse blessed with natural flair.

But instead of watching perhaps the most complete midfielder in the modern game dominate in United colours, Red Devils fans have had to endure players such as barely interested Brazilian Anderson.

Luckhurst tweeted some scarcely believable figures revealing what carrying the underperforming ex-Porto man has cost United:

Nice work if you can get it.

Speaking of nice work, Pogba is sure to receive one of the largest contract offers in history when he does eventually leave Turin. His agent, Mino Raiola, appears to already be laying the groundwork for such an offer.

Raiola recently dubbed his precocious client "the most expensive player if he would be on the market" during an interview with Sky Sports News HQ, per Sky Sports. Those words are sure to make Pogba valued at more than the £61 million United were recently considering offering for him, per Italian publication La Stampa, via Metro reporter Hannah Duncan.

Wherever the outrageously talented 21-year-old ends up, it sounds as though envious glances will be coming from Old Trafford.