Man City ready to break the bank for Man United and Chelsea target Paul Pogba

Posted Monday, May 11, 2015 by Dailystar.co.uk

Man City are willing to make Paul Pogba the highest-paid midfielder in the world.

The big-spenders have made the France and Juventus ace their No.1 transfer target this summer and want him to replace Yaya Toure.

Billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour will sanction a British-record £70m deal for Pogba in the hope of luring him to Manchester, as exclusively revealed by Starsport last week.

He is ready to break records to rebuild his squad and will offer Pogba, 22, a deal worth a staggering £12.5m that equates to £250,000-a-week - AFTER TAX.

Pogba is also a target of Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Chelsea and neighbours Manchester United.

But Etihad bosses reckon their spending power can blow their rivals out of the water and land one of the hottest properties in world football.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi are all on around £300,000-a-week, but the deal on offer for Pogba would still make the highest paid midfielder.

WANTED: Man City could swoop for Paul Pogba

It would even dwarf the current wages of Toure who is City's current highest earner on £220,000-a-week.

Toure is expected to leave the deposed champions this summer with Inter Milan his most likely destination.

Pogba has already been sounded out and it seems certain he will move this summer with City determined to win the race.

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola has told City he is open to talks with them about taking charge at the Etihad.

But Guardiola is keen to see out his current deal at Bayern Munich before becoming City boss next summer.

City have received a boost in their pursuit of Guardiola, who has let it be known to that he is willing to discuss the job.

BOOST: Pep Guardiola is willing to discuss the Man City job

But the Spaniard will make them wait until he feels the time is right.

City hope that will be at the end of this season and haven't given up on securing their dream managerial target this summer.

For now Guardiola, 44, is resisting City's attempts to lure him to England for next season.

But City hope Guardiola's current problems at Bayern will boost their chances of getting him sooner than expected.

Despite clinching his second Bundesliga, Guardiola is under mounting pressure after four defeats in a row that included a crushing 3-0 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League last week.

Discussing the threat of Guardiola to his job after yesterday's 6-0 destruction of QPR, current City boss Manuel Pellegrini said: "I've not heard or read any reports. Nobody told me about it."