Paul Pogba’s first words when he returned to Old Trafford was: “I am back home” but it wasn’t easy to convince him to sign for Manchester United a second time, according to manager Jose Mourinho.
The 23-year-old Frenchman joined the Old Trafford side this summer for a world record fee of £89.4m to become the most expensive footballer ever.
Mourinho revealed that he had to beat off competition from another top team whose manager was always in contact with the former Juventus forward.
"Oh! It was hard to convince him," Mourinho told Goal, when asked how difficult it was to resign Pogba. "I had many [conversations] on the phone, lots of SMS.
"I think he was getting one in the morning from the manager from another big club and one in the afternoon from myself. I had to try hard to convince him to choose us instead of the other one."
Mourinho, 53, also mentioned that the 20-time English champions needs to return to the UEFA Champions League and the competition also needs Manchester United.
"The Champions League without Manchester United is not the Champions League and Manchester United without the Champions League is not Manchester United," he said. "So this is the first big step.
"But to get back to the Champions League we need to do well in the Premier League, so the first step is to recover the self-esteem, which I think we are doing."
Apart from Pogba, Mourinho also completed the signing of Sweden football legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Armenia best player Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ivorian international Eric Bailly.
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