Believe it or not, football clubs typically aren't run by idiots. Utd (PSG or whoever) haven't just allowed players to run their contracts down for the sake of it but unfortunately sometimes there's little clubs can do and they're left with no win situations.
Take Lingard as an example, he has reportedly refused to agree a new deal and also refused to leave last summer - what more could Utd do? You may say they should have done something about his situation a year or two earlier but do you think Utd weren't open to selling Lingard 2 years ago? Of course they were but finding a buyer for him isn't easy. There aren't a host of clubs queuing up for Lingard and the type of clubs that were or are interested in him couldn't or wouldn't pay the wages he was earning. Lingard is probably earning more at Utd than any player at West Ham for example. The fact that Utd have struggled to sell Lingard in the past couple of years is a direct consequence to them extending his contract previously.
Like Lingard, I have no doubt Utd have been willing to let Pogba go for the past couple of seasons but nobody will pay anything meaningful for him. If Utd give Pogba a new contract they wouldn't be protecting his value, they'd be stuck with him. If Utd couldn't sell him 6-18 months ago, they've got no chance of selling him when he's just signed a new 5 year £400k per week contract, which is what he'll no doubt demand. Utd's decision with Pogba is do they want to keep Pogba around and if so, is he worth giving a massive contract to? One of the considerations when making that decision will be the knock on effects with other players contracts. It's one thing paying Ronaldo £400-500k per week but when you're giving it to Pogba then Fernandes and everybody else who is considered more important to the side will be demanding those figures too.
Haven't heard a single thing about him at Leeds so I assume he's been nothing special.
