Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has hailed new signing Paul Pogba as "one of, if not the best midfielder in the world", following assertions from the Frenchman himself that he wants to be the no.1 player on the planet.
The boss also revealed that he had spoken to Sir Alex Ferguson during negotiations to re-sign the player from Juventus, adding that he was delighted the club were not put off in securing Pogba's signature just because of his previous history with the club.
"Sir Alex and I exchanged a few ideas about him and I know that he and the club did everything [to keep Pogba in 2012], but the decision was made by other parties," Jose told journalists during his press conference on Thursday.
"I think it is important that the club aren't afraid to do what we did," the boss continued. "Just because you lose a player doesn't mean that if you get the chance to recover him then you don't do it. You made one mistake; why would you make the second mistake? We did the mistake only once, so Paul is back and I am really happy to have him back."
Little wonder, given Pogba's ambitions of greatness. Notable footballing figures such as Rio Ferdinand, Zinedine Zidane and Andrea Pirlo have already stated that the youngster wants to become the world’s best and, although Mourinho feels this is some way off, the Portuguese does believe he is already one of the pre-eminent talents in his position.
"Can he be the best in the world?," Mourinho said. "When you speak about the best players in the world, you go immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals. Can Paul score the amount of goals scored by Ronaldo and Messi? I don't think he will even score 20 goals in a season, but he is one of the best midfield players, maybe the best midfielder in the world.
"Playing for Juventus in Italy would have been a magnificent experience for him," he added. "He would have been exposed to a different footballing country with a different philosophy that helped make him the player he is. That’s not to say things would have been different had he stayed at United. When they are top players, I don't think it matters where or when – the good players always come up."
Statements such as these only go to heighten the excitement ahead of Pogba's potential involvement in the fixture with Southampton on Friday, but Mourinho expects the early contributions to be subtly effective rather than spectacular.
"I am not expecting him to dribble past five guys with his first touch, or score a wonder goal – I expect him to have a good selection of pass," the manager commented. "I want to see a good, simple execution to help the game become fluid. I don't think he is worried about an immediate impact. I see him as a very calm player, very comfortable in his own skin and settled in this role as star player.
"So this to me is not an impact; this is just a natural improvement of the team because he is a super football player."
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