In July 2016, Massimiliano Allegri issued a warning that was clearly intended for Paul Pogba.
"Anyone who has the opportunity to leave Juventus has to consider things very carefully because, right now, Juve are among the top four European clubs," the Bianconeri boss stated.
Sadly, that warning went unheeded.
There were sentimental considerations, of course. Pogba hadn't really wanted to leave United for Juventus in 2012. He felt "Mancunian". He wanted to prove himself at Old Trafford.
So, he was "shocked" by the way in which talks over a renewal collapsed, with Raiola and then-United manager Sir Alex Ferguson clashing during a decisive meeting over the midfielder's future. Raiola later admitted in an Amazon Prime documentary that he deemed United's offer derisory, telling Ferguson, "For this money, my chihuahua would not walk on the grass of the training centre!"
The Scot's subsequent retirement thus facilitated Pogba's return four years later; but it also doomed it to failure.United were a club in utter disarray in 2016, still failing dismally to come to terms with Ferguson's retirement three years previously.
They no longer had one of the greatest managers in football history calling the shots; they had Ed Woodward.And, in his desperation to return the club to winning ways, he turned to Mourinho – akin to putting Josep Maria Bartomeu in charge of your personal savings account.
Mourinho and Pogba's partnership was never going to last long and it was fitting that the former was eventually sacked after putting the latter on the bench for a game against Liverpool.Woodward continued to make one recruitment mistake after another, with the net result being that Pogba, who was 23 at the time of his return to Old Trafford, essentially wasted what should have been the prime years of his club career.
So, here is now, at 29, back AT Juve, hoping to make up for lost time. The problem, of course, is that this is not the same club that Pogba left six years ago.
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