#4 Players may be wary post-Pogba
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On the other side of the coin to the previous point, how do the players feel about such huge transfer fees? With no real established star – like a Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or Neymar – likely to move this season, the spotlight is shining heavily on highly-rated prospects like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Dele Alli to make potential moves.
After seeing Pogba struggle this season though, who’s to say that a player like Alli or Mbappe would want to move to one of Europe’s giants right now, especially if their transfer fee was to break the world record? While they seem full of confidence at their somewhat smaller clubs, making a record-breaking move to Madrid or Manchester could cause their fee to become a millstone around their necks.
It wouldn’t surprise me, for all of the speculation surrounding his future, if Mbappe, for instance, chose to spend at least another two or three seasons at Monaco to truly establish himself before moving onto bigger things. It’d certainly make sense – Ronaldo didn’t leave United for Real until he was in his prime – almost 25 years old – while Zidane made the move to the Bernabeu widely recognised as the world’s best player.
For a youngster like Alli or Mbappe, why rush these things?
