Jose has to fix Pogba or he’s not the coach we imagined

THE day Kevin De Bruyne left Chelsea, no one thought he would be returning to English football as one of the most creative midfield players in Europe.

The same with Mohamed Salah. When he was sold to Roma, it would have been a brave individual who predicted he would come back a striker with 30, maybe 40 goals a season in his tank.

So, while there is no shortage of folk crowing that Jose Mourinho made terrible mistakes in letting them go, few have much evidence beyond hindsight.

It may be argued De Bruyne and Salah were considerably better players than they showed and that maybe the manager, and the club, should have persevered with them — but they had not revealed anything like the excellence that is apparent now.

Salah did not look a patch on Chelsea’s other forwards, such as Eden Hazard; De Bruyne was not a creator in the class of Cesc Fabregas. This does not make Mourinho right, but it at least offers mitigation.

It is different with Paul Pogba. Pogba arrived, fully formed, as one of Europe’s best midfield players. A mainstay of a Juventus team who dominated Italian football and were the first to reach a Champions League final in five seasons, the linchpin of a France team who contested the Euro 2016 final.

Securing him was considered a remarkable coup, as Manchester United could not offer Champions League football and the giants of Spain were on his trail.

Mourinho put immense pressure on United’s executive vicechairman Ed Woodward to get the deal done and he delivered.

Pogba’s recruitment was considered the game- changer for Manchester United after so long on the rebound. This wasn’t a last-minute purchase, Radamel Falcao or Angel di Maria. Nobody was asking whether Pogba was a good fit. Securing him was considered the deal of the summer.

So if Mourinho cannot make this one work, if he cannot find a way to fit Pogba with Alexis Sanchez and other members of a squad every bit as stellar as that at Manchester City, then understanding will be scarce.

Pogba is young, but he was no work in progress. Nobody who saw him marauding around the midfield for Juventus considered him a learner. And, unlike Chelsea when they lost Salah and De Bruyne, Manchester United certainly do not have anything better. Pogba should be one of the most effective midfield players in the Premier League right now — and for a brief time this season he looked it.

Since Sanchez’s arrival he does not. If Mourinho cannot sort that out, if he cannot find a way for his two prize assets to dovetail, then he is not the problem- solving coach of popular imagination.

There is talk of Toni Kroos being recruited from Real Madrid as the replacement for Michael Carrick, but it is not the shape of Manchester United in August that should concern.

Before then, there is a tilt at the Champions League, starting in Seville tomorrow, and the imperative of maintaining a top-four position in the Premier League. Mourinho needs Pogba at his best for both.

Equally, he needs it for his own sake. Turning down The Beatles at Decca in 1962 is one thing; turning them down post- Sergeant Pepper quite another.