City ready to swap Touré for Pogba

Manchester City’s determination to prise Paul Pogba from Juventus has led to Yaya Touré being offered as a makeweight in a deal for the Frenchman, who is valued at €100m (£71.5m) by the Italian champions. City have visited Turin to hold talks over a potential transfer for the 22-year-old.

They face competition from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United, who signed the midfielder from Le Havre in July 2009 before allowing him to depart on a free to Juve three summers later.

City have offered not only Touré, whose relationship with the club is troubled, but also Samir Nasri, Stevan Jovetic, Aleksandar Kolarov and Edin Dzeko to Juventus should the Serie A club wish to include one or more players in any deal for Pogba. 

City are the only club to have gone to Turin to firm up their interest in buying a player who would be the ideal replacement for Touré and would be expected to be the mainstay of the midfield for the foreseeable future.

Juve are reluctant to sell but will listen to offers in the region of €100m, though their preference would be a straight cash deal and it remains to be seen if they would accept a player in part-exchange.

Pogba’s first choice is to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona, with City then favourites ahead of PSG. Real’s interest has caused Zinedine Zidane, coach of their Castilla ‘B’ team, to make contact with the player’s camp by telephone to begin a dialogue. 

Although Barcelona have a transfer ban for 2015 imposed by Fifa, they may be able sign Pogba and loan him back to Juve before registering him next year. —The Guardian