Pogba's agent reveals how Zlatan Ibrahimovic threatened to break his legs if he sold Pogba

Zlatan Ibrahimovic joked with Mino Raiola that he would 'break his legs' if he didn't secure the deal that took Paul Pogba to Manchester United this summer.

Raiola, the Dutch super agent, brokered the moves of Zlatan, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pogba to Old Trafford in the off-season, banking himself nearly £40million in the process.

Ibrahimovic was the first domino to fall on July 1 2016, when he signed on a Bosman for one year.

It would be nearly six weeks of hard negotiation after that until Pogba arrived back in the north-west of England, and during that period, Raiola reveals, the Swedish forward threatened the agent with violence if he couldn't get a deal done.

"Zlatan is very important to me," Raiola told Dutch newspaper De Volskrant.

"He was the first [to sign] and he called me and said, 'you dare let Pogba sign for someone else and I'll break your legs.'"

Raiola also went on to defend criticism of Pogba's poor early-season form.

"For Paul it is that he still needs to find the balance in the team.

"My favourite him is attacking midfielder, slightly left. He will destory you with his strength, movement and technique but that is up to Mourinho."

Pogba scored his first United goal on Saturday in the romp over Leicester.

The Frenchman directed a bullet header past Ron-Robert Zieler to put United 4-0 up against reigning Premier League champions Leicester on Saturday.

His header capped a fine first half for Jose Mourinho's men, who look revitalised after successive league defeats.

Pogba had a new midfield partner for the occasion, as Ander Herrera's impressive performance at Northampton earned him a league start alongside the £89million man.

In his first spell at United, before leaving for Juventus, Pogba failed to find the net in his seven first-team appearances.

He found the net 34 times in his 178 appearances in Italy.

Pogba has been criticised for the manner in which he has returned to United, with numerous anonymous performances in the middle of the park.

However, a change of shape appears to have allowed Pogba to flourish against Leicester - and he got his just rewards with a goal.

Speaking after the game to Sky Sports Pogba said: "I'm very happy for the result and this goal and I hope it's not going to be the last one!

"So just carry on, keep doing that, what we did today and after we can go and we have our goals.

"We were very focused. We knew that was going to be difficult. The first four games we were good, the two games then [against City and Watford] after we knew were going to be difficult, and now today we showed on the pitch a big performance from the team.

"I feel happy and I want to carry on like this."