Paul Pogba: Why Juventus don't have to sell to Manchester United, despite buying Gonzalo Higuain

Gonzalo Higuain’s £75.3m move from Napoli to Juventus, the third most expensive transfer in history, staggered some and excited others.

The logic is that, having shelled out a monumental sum on 2015/16’s Capocannoniere winner, the Serie A champions will only balance their books if they sell Paul Pogba.

That will be music to the ears of those Manchester United fans who are desperate for the latest line on this summer’s longest-running transfer saga.

The question is, do Juventus really have to sell?

The most convincing argument is sometimes the simplest one.

£75.3m is a phenomenal amount of money for most clubs and even at Italy’s most successful, it is not merely a drop in the ocean.

Juventus just spent around 30 per cent of their annual turnover on Higuain. One way or another, it would make sense to get that money back.

Juventus have perhaps set the standard for transfer dealings among European football’s elite for several seasons now.

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Andrea Bazargli, Sami Khedira, Patrice Evra, Andrea Pirlo, Alvaro Morata and Pogba himself have all moved to Turin as part of cut-price deals over the last few years and enjoyed success.

The opportunity to make a profit of more than £99m on the France international is not one to be sniffed at.

Comparisons have been made between Zinedine Zidane’s departure to Real Madrid in 2001; the first (and, so far, only) time that Juventus were the beneficiaries of a world record transfer fee.

With the Zidane money, Juventus bought Pavel Nedved, Lilian Thuram and Gianluigi Buffon, who has stood between i Bianconeri’s posts to this day.

Those acquisitions were the foundation of Juventus’ team for the following seasons, right up until the Calciopoli scandal. The windfall from Pogba’s sale could allow for similarly astute signings.

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Simone Zaza, of stuttering penalty run-up fame, is just one of several fringe players that Juventus could allow to leave in order to recoup the money spent on Higuain.

Roberto Pereyra has been linked with Watford, Stefano Sturaro with Southampton, while Hernanes could be in line for a move to Benfica.

The sale of all four would return a sizeable chunk of Higuain’s fee and make keeping Pogba a more feasible prospect.

For a player in the middle of a long-running, acrimonious transfer saga, Pogba has been notably composed about the whole situation.

There have been no transfer requests, no come-and-get-me pleas and the only significant comments from his camp have come from his agent, Mino Raiola.

That may be because, as suggested by Mina Rzouki on BBC Radio Five Live on Tuesday, Pogba is not desperate to leave Juventus.

Although open to United’s advances, he loves Juventus. His remarkable, yet still raw talent has been nutured with patience in Turin. He may not receive the same treatment elsewhere.

At one point, it seemed as though Calciopoli and the relative weakness of Serie A would banish Juventus from European football’s top table forever.

They have, however, finally clawed their way back to elite level, and have outperformed almost every English club of a similar stature in recent seasons.

Juve want to do better still, they want to go even further. Holding firm in these negotiations and keeping Pogba would be a major statement of intent.