Former Manchester United player Anders Lindegaard condemned the signing of former Juventus player Paul Pogba, saying that the club was now run differently.
Pogba signed a five-year deal after his world record move from the Turin-based side to Old Trafford for £89 million. The 23-year old left United four years back when he couldn’t agree with the management over playing time and wages.
The move for Pogba surpasses the amount Red Devils received for Cristiano Ronaldo and the amount Tottenham Hotspur received from same Madrid for Gareth Bale in 2013. Pogba joined as the fourth signing pushing total expenditures on summer transfer to £150 million. Coach Jose Mourinho signed Eric Baily, Henrikh Mkhitaryan but got Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer.
Lindegaard who plays for Preston North End blasted the changes a club where he spent five years is undergoing. “This is definitely a new chapter. United are a different club to when I was there. It’s run in a different way and built on different values. Unfortunately this is just a natural development with how football is going and it doesn’t change my feelings for them,” Lindegaard told 888sport.
Lindegaard admitted that everything these days is about money, even though the money spent has been a part of the success of the club in recent years. He opined that football was getting too monetized and it can only get worse. He suggested that in five years players would cost as much as a quarter of a billion. Lindegaard confessed that Pogba was a real talent having played with him at United. He said he was happy the deal went through and happy for the club, though it was obvious he couldn’t get past the amount spent to lure the Frenchman back to the club.