Our rivals got better today, price tag irrelevant
This is my assessment too.
The most frustrating thing about this whole sorry episode is that we could have had Pogba last summer for considerably less than £89m, but Txiki did what Txiki does and acted too late in the window for him to even consider moving to us.
He's the sort of midfield player we've lacked since Toure's world class 13/14 season. He's a player who can grab a game by the scruff of the neck and break it apart, either with a fantastic goal or a blinding moment of vision (think back to
this goal). We have a good squad and arguably the best manager on the planet - if we can get Hart, Kompany, Gundogan, Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne and Aguero fit and firing then I can't imagine we'll look too regretfully over at Old Trafford while Pogba goes from strength to strength - but this is a serious missed opportunity that we should have taken.
United were never going to be gone for long - all this "tick tock", Save Our Dave stuff was premature - because they're a huge business and huge businesses stretch themselves constantly to remain on top, but they've come back earlier than expected and this signing is a huge statement of intent. If they use him properly, which I'm not entirely sure on, he will be the man who rebuilds their new era. When we announced Guardiola, United were hurting and they've responded by getting Mourinho, Pogba and Mkhitaryan before the start of the new season. It's the sort of ruthlessness I believe we lack in the market at the moment (we're haggling over a few bob for Stones, struggling to get rid of the deadwood) and it could cost us in the near future.
I suppose the wider issues are a discussion for another time, but the harsh truth is that Pogba could have and should have been a City player last season. He's not, and now he plays for our greatest rivals. The fault for this lies at the door of Txiki Begiristain, so he's going to have to work some serious magic to make sure the consequences aren't too damaging.
