Manchester United hold talks to sign ‘Pogba’s return’

Unless things have been tough in recent months, you would know that Manchester United are in desperate need of signing a new midfielder.

With the departure of Casemiro and the impending departure of Manuel Ugarte, Michael Carrick will need to rebuild his midfield in his first transfer window as United manager.

The basics are already there. We have the best young player in England in Koby Mainoo and the best player in the Premier League in Bruno Fernandes.

Ederson is expected to join in the coming weeks and will provide a number of contributions from the base, including defending the defense and starting the attack. But Jason Wilcox and his colleagues can’t stop their efforts to improve these downtown areas.

Man United have further plans after Ederson

News broke on Tuesday night that United have finalized a deal with the Atalanta midfielder, agreeing a transfer fee in the region of £35 million to bring him into English football.

So what’s next? Well, they’re likely to spend a much larger sum to acquire a genuine elite-level midfielder. But it’s not easy.

Transfers for Nottingham Forest’s Elliott Anderson and Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali appear extremely difficult given their potential transfer fees of £100m.

Another target, West Ham’s Matheus Fernandes, is also said to be worth a whopping £80m. Premier League officials know they can charge a premium for their star assets.

As a result, United may have to get creative or find another cheaper alternative.

According to reports in Spain by Sport Witness, the man could be Sevilla’s Lucien Agume. They report that the Spanish side have approached United to hold talks regarding the 24-year-old.

In fact, Sevilla actually offered the player to Carrick and others, telling them to pay around £22m if they wanted to lure him out of La Liga.

Why Agume could be Man United’s new Pogba

Paul Pogba, eh? The Frenchman was a highly enigmatic character, but there are few more exciting players at Old Trafford in the modern era.

Things ended in a bit of a bad way when he left Manchester, but he left with a series of great memories for his supporters. No one will forget Pogba in a hurry and the fact that he is still talked about in this part speaks volumes.

The midfielder made 233 appearances and was involved in 81 goals during that time.

Pogba was the definition of a box-to-box master. His energy was relentless. His ability to outrun opposing players was unparalleled. He was a monster in the middle of the park and contributed effectively at both ends of the pitch.

Now, in Agoum, United could potentially sign ‘the second coming of Paul Pogba’. As European football expert Zac Lowy mentioned when he first broke out at Sochaux in France and Inter Milan.

It’s fair to say that the midfielder hasn’t quite lived up to the hype given to him as a teenager, and the fact that Sevilla want to let him go probably doesn’t paint the best picture.

Agume did not end the season in Sevilla in the best possible way, but he hardly missed any matches for the Spanish team, showing his importance.

A tenacious and aggressive player, he received a whopping 11 yellow cards. Although he only scored once, the Cameroon-born midfielder provided four assists.

The thing that Agme most resembles Pogba is his power. At 6ft 2, just an inch shorter than the great Frenchman, he has long levers to run through the midfield. Their tall, wiry skeletons do look similar.

As a result, he is able to perform a huge number of ball recoveries. In the 2024/25 season, the Sevilla star ranked in the top 18% of midfielders in La Liga in this metric, achieving a score of 5.78 out of 90. For context, in 2021/22 Pogba scored a whopping 6.51 goals per game for United in the Premier League.

Aerially, both are incredible. The French superstar, who spent his prime years at Old Trafford, completed 2.39 aerial shots per 90 during the aforementioned season. Agume won in 2024/25 with a score of 1.79 out of 90. In the words of The Athletic’s Alexander Barker, the “physical” section of Agume’s scouting report is just “a great big green tick.”

Barker describes himself as “a great athlete – tall, strong, fast and agile”, and he certainly looks like Pogba.

Indeed, the Sevilla man is no copy of Pogba. His average dribble success rate is less than 1 in 90, but this is largely due to his limited role as a No. 6, the anchor of the Spanish team’s midfield. That said, they have similar qualities when it comes to collecting the ball and creating a physical presence from midfield.