Report: Paul Pogba, David De Gea Demand New Contracts as Potential Pay Cut Looms

Paul Pogba and David De Gea could be headed for a standoff with Manchester United over wages amid reports both players want a pay rise, even though failure to qualify for next season's UEFA Champions League would see salaries cut at Old Trafford.

The Times' Matt Hughes (h/t Daily Mirror's Matt Maltby) reported how playmaker Pogba and goalkeeper De Gea are demanding "huge pay rises." Maltby cited "uncertainty" over a place in the Champions League as a motivating factor for both players wanting more.

Ironically, missing out on Champions League football will make pay rises impossible, according to the report: "Failure to qualify for the elite European club competition would see every United player have their basic salary reduced by a whopping 25 per cent. This was the case when they last missed out on Champions League qualification before Jose Mourinho’s arrival in 2016."

The Red Devils need to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League to ensure a return to the Champions league next season. United are sixth and trail Chelsea and Arsenal by two points.

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While United have played a game fewer than Chelsea, they have an inferior goal difference to both the Blues and Gunners. United are also five points adrift of third-place Tottenham Hotspur.

It means Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team is far from a lock to be playing Champions League football in the next campaign. Being without it would surely make it more difficult to keep Pogba, whom Maltby noted is wanted by La Liga giants Real Madrid, with "a strong possibility that he could leave United for the Bernabeu."

Meanwhile, De Gea is angling for "an improvement on his current £200,000-a-week-deal."

Losing either would be an obvious blow for United since both are key at each end of the team. When on form, Pogba is the creative fulcrum, a midfield powerhouse who combines strength with the flair and vision to unlock defences with through passes, and he has the drive to get goals in bunches.

Those qualities had been showing up a lot since Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho in the dugout back in December.

However, recent rumours have suggested Pogba and Solskjaer are already having problems. Le Parisien (h/t Jean Palacios of AS) described a relationship "slowly fading."

Pogba has been named as one of three players, along with forwards Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, "whose performances and attitude are causing their manager concern," according to Chris Wheeler of the Daily Mail.

Pogba's performance during the 4-0 aggregate defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final came in for scrutiny. Yet the Frenchman wasn't the only United star who struggled, with De Gea letting a tame shot from Lionel Messi squirm through his grasp during Tuesday's second leg at the Camp Nou.

While he's usually been a dependable stopper, cracks have been appearing in De Gea's game this season:

If those mistakes are a sign of a potential contract standoff distracting De Gea, United's case to finish in the top four becomes weaker.

It's a similar story with Pogba, whose form has dipped somewhat since Real began making a public declaration of interest:

Solskjaer can't afford to have his two best players distracted at the business end of the season. United can't be leveraged into paying over the odds for inconsistent stars, but there's no doubt the squad is significantly weaker when Pogba and De Gea aren't motivated.