Looking at Paul Pogba’s first spell at the club, the majority of the footage that we can see showed him preparing to come on as a substitute in various first-team games. There were also a couple of spectacular goals from his youth-team matches, of course, but the lack of senior action said it all about the Frenchman’s initial Old Trafford experience.
On Friday against Southampton, Pogba is finally set to make a first United start less than a fortnight on from his world-record £89.5m return to the club from Juventus. It has been a long time coming, but the 23-year-old will be hoping it proves worthy of the wait.
He left United in 2012 as a teenager dejected, later citing Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to overlook him for the home defeat to Blackburn Rovers on New Year’s Eve 2011 as the last straw. Seeing Rafael and Park Ji-Sung chosen ahead of him in midfield was an highlight of how imperfect Sir Alex was, and he needed little persuasion from agent Mino Raiola that a departure from Old Trafford was the best thing for him to move his career forward.
Pogba returns to United as a ready-made superstar. Almost five years on from the day he was expecting to make his first Old Trafford start, he does so as the final piece of what Jose Mourinho hopes will be a title-winning jigsaw. Just as Juventus built a team to challenge with Pogba at the heart of it, the Portuguese is going about a very similar project at Old Trafford.
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the forward line, Henrikh Mkhitaryan added to the attacking midfield department and Eric Bailly already commanding the back four, United have injected quality into every area this summer. Pogba has arrived back in Manchester to find a team truly ready to make great leaps back towards the top of the game.
But If he had not left United back then, he might not be the star that he is today
cant wait to see him play
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