David Moyes has held talks with Juventus’s chief transfer negotiator after planning a bold double move for Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal.
The Manchester United manager met boardroom boss Beppe Marotta after Juventus’s game at Cagliari on Sunday and discussed the possibility of signing either, or both, of his top two targets.
After travelling to Cagliari with first-team coach Jimmy Lumsden to see Juve roar back from 1-0 down to win 4-1 and maintain their lead at the top of Serie A, Moyes outlined his transfer plans with the Turin club’s top administrator.
But by the time he headed back to Manchester, he was forced to accept he would have his work cut out to entice Pogba back to Old Trafford and would have to wait until the summer to capture Vidal.
Zinedine Zidane said Pogba’s departure from United 18 months ago was ‘the biggest mistake of Sir Alex Ferguson’s career’, but Moyes is clinging to the hope he can rectify it, despite the cost.
Paris Saint-Germain’s interest and willingness to offer Pogba a route back to his home city is likely to push the asking price beyond £40million. He is understood to favour PSG but has not ruled out a second spell at Old Trafford.
For now, Juventus are adamant about hanging on to him and Marotta said: ‘From our point of view, we do not want to sell Pogba and, so far, we have closed the door to any possible buyer.’
Sadly for Moyes, those close to Marotta fully expect him to resist all approaches for the likes of Pogba, Vidal, Claudio Marchisio and striker Fernando Llorente during the January window but be more receptive to overtures in the summer, particularly for Marchisio.
It has also emerged that Moyes fared little better in his efforts to off-load fringe players. Juventus remain keen on Nani but are being deterred not by his hamstring injury but the asking price of between £16m and £18m. They will offer only half as much.
Fiorentina are discussing a loan option for midfielder Anderson, with a view to a £5.4m deal in the summer.
Full back Fabio is also attracting interest from Italy but he could be heading to Cardiff after being targeted by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Meanwhile, Monaco have joined Galatasaray in bidding to sign Nemanja Vidic on a free transfer this summer.
Sportsmail revealed on Monday that Galatasaray will offer the Manchester United defender up to £3.4million a season after tax and a four-year contract.
But Ligue 1 Monaco are also showing interest in taking the Serbia centre half, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
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