Manchester United transfer news: Paul Pogba deal to be 'rushed through' as Blaise Matuidi remains back-up option

Manchester United will not face a deadline on their efforts to sign Paul Pogba but they will try to rush through the deal regardless in an attempt to put an end to the transfer saga for the summer.

It was claimed last week that Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, had given United until the end of this month to sign the 23-year-old, with talks expected to intensify once he has returned from his summer holiday.

Juventus are determined not to sell Pogba and have offered the midfielder a two-year contract extension on improved wages, but Pogba’s fate is expected to lie in his own hands given that United are willing to meet Juventus’s £100m valuation for the France international.

According to the Manchester Evening News, Raiola has not implemented a deadline on the negotiations with United, but all parties are keen to try and ratify Pogba’s future as soon as possible to bring an end to his uncertain future.

Raiola has already held successful talks with United in the transfers of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and it’s expected that a deal to see Pogba return to Old Trafford would not be hard to come by providing the player himself wants a move back to the Premier League.

However, French newspaper L’Equipe claims that United have lined up Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Blaise Matuidi as a back-up option should they fail to persuade Pogba into a move. 29-year-old Matuidi has already emerged on the United radar in the past, and manager Jose Mourinho is keen on landing the France international to fill his fourth “priority” signing that he identified in his maiden press conference earlier this month.

Matuidi’s future at PSG has been thrown up in the air somewhat by the arrival of midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, with new manager Unai Emery moving swiftly to bring the Poland international with him as the pair moved from Sevilla to Paris.

United are also being linked with a move for Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen, with Jürgen Klopp expected to inform the Wales international that he can leave Anfield once he returns from a post-Euro 2016 holiday.

Allen proved a key figure in Wales’s incredible run to the semi-finals of the tournament in France, with inclusion in Uefa’s Team of the Tournament reward for his form across the Channel. However, it may not have been enough to save his future at Anfield, after Klopp spoke last week to admit that they will need to discuss his future role with the Reds upon his return.

“We will find a solution but it’s not done,” Klopp said. “Obviously Joe Allen is a good player; we never doubted this. He played a good European Championship, like the whole Welsh team.

“We have to make decisions, we have to find solutions.

“We have to talk to the player, ask the player and think about our situation. That’s how it works.”

According to the South Wales Evening Post, Swansea were already hoping to bring Allen back to the Liberty Stadium, four years after he followed Brendan Rodgers to Merseyside. However, with United considering selling Bastian Schweinsteiger and Marouane Fellaini, bringing in Allen as a squad player – and one of the “supplementary” signings that Mourinho discussed – could prove a viable option for United.