Ole awaits Utd transfer funds, hails Pogba

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he is waiting for clarification on the size of Manchester United‘s summer transfer budget.

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Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has said he will manage the club’s resources “carefully” following the coronavirus pandemic and although Solskjaer believes money will be available, he is yet to discover what his budget will be.

“I think the pandemic has hit everyone really hard,” said Solskjaer. “I still think we need to wait and see how things are panning out to know the real effects of the pandemic, to know what kind of financial state we are in. You see some teams invest, some teams don’t.

“We’ll have to take a big look at things ourselves to see how hard we’ve been hit. I know the club has announced a few numbers before.

“It’s not for me to say here now we are going to have X amount because I don’t really know. I don’t really know how hard we have been hit.

“We are a financially strong club, but we are also probably being hit more than anybody else. There’s still a lot of uncertainty and these three or four months, every businessman in the world, every footballer in the world, I think everyone is still unsure what the effect will be.”

One possible positive for United is a reduced market for Paul Pogba. The midfielder has a year and a year option left on his contract and has, in the past, hinted at wanting a move away. He returned to the starting XI for the first time since September in the comprehensive 3-0 win over Sheffield United on Wednesday and Solskjaer has repeated his stance that he wants to keep the 27-year-old at Old Trafford.

“He wants to be the best he can be,” said the United manager. “He knows he’s a special talent and he doesn’t want to in five or ten years time look back and think I didn’t make the most of it.

“He is already a World Cup winner, he has won things with Juventus and us so I’m not surprised by his enthusiasm and dedication to us. Yes, we are looking to keep Paul here and we are looking to keep the best players here anyway.”