COMMENT: After almost three years on the continent, playing with and against some of the world's best, he chose to come back. At Manchester United things had changed, improved - thanks to the new manager in charge. It was the right move at the right time. Oh, and we're not talking about Paul Pogba...
Mark Hughes. A foreign lad, recruited by United at 16. Tempted away to Barcelona, only to return - via Bayern Munich - after seeing the changes Sir Alex Ferguson had put in place. And the deal was a club record: £1.8 million. Not exactly the £100 million being waved in front of Juventus' board, sure. But still far-and-away the biggest fee Fergie had ever put towards a player in his career.
That season, some 28 years ago, Hughes ended with the PFA Player of the Year gong. The following year, he'd help Ferguson win his first trophy with United - the FA Cup. And the rest is history...
Fast forward to today and the similarities are uncanny. Of course, the status of United has changed. But no Champions League football. A team lacking balance and direction. And a new gaffer in town promising a return to past glories.
Without Jose Mourinho, without the power of his personality, this deal would be a non-starter. Only Mourinho would defy Sir Alex; not once, not twice, but if Pogba does walk through the gates at Carrington, it will mean THREE of Mino Raiola's clients arriving at United. This is no coincidence. Not since the Italian ferried the Frenchman away to Turin some four years ago has he been allowed to place one of his own at Old Trafford. It took Mourinho's arrival to break Fergie's grip. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and possibly Paul Pogba. The idea that United have had to look elsewhere for such quality is ridiculous. But, as Raiola has told Pogba, there's a new boss in town.
The significance of this deal doesn't begin and end at Old Trafford. Nor the Premier League. This has repercussions in every boardroom of every major club in Europe - including Florentino Perez's Real Madrid.
'You may have the best coaches,' they roar in Spain, 'but we have the best players'. But Pogba throws that argument out the window.
For Florentino, the best players must always play for Real Madrid. And with a Frenchman of Zinedine Zidane's status in the dugout, he believed he had first refusal on the most talented young midfielder in the game. But then came Mourinho, a chief executive happy to break spending records and the end of a bitter agent's feud. A perfect United storm. Florentino's plans are in tatters. The Pogba project shattered by a club not even in the Champions League this season.
Mourinho recognises the magnitude of this deal, not just for his new club, but the competition he calls home. He knows what the critics say.
"Let me say that we have brought in the player who was voted the best player in the French league [Ibrahimovic] and with Micki [Mkhitaryan] we have brought the player who was voted the best player of the Bundesliga," he proudly declared last week.
And next, Mourinho hopes, will be Pogba. Another "best" as the manager puts it. This is no dog whistle to the likes of Real, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but a full throated roar. Yes, the Premier League does boast the game's best coaches, will argue Mou, and now with me at Old Trafford, we're attracting the "best" players.
It isn't Real Madrid which are willing to make Pogba the first £100 million player, but an English club. And if Alvaro Morata's agent, Juanma López, now armed with superior contract offers from Chelsea and Arsenal, can't be convinced his client will get a regular game under Zizou, it'll be a second defeat for Florentino. For the moment, it's only the president's will that is preventing Morata from accepting a move to London. But the former Juve striker still needs to be convinced. A second loss to the Premier League? And for the European champions? For Florentino, this was never in the script.
The deal still needs to be done. And we'll know more this week. Raiola has met with Juve directors and now Ed Woodward, United's vice-chairman exec, is set to hold face-to-face negotiations with his Bianconeri counterparts this week. Everything is on the table. The method of payment. How much up front. Even if the fee can be negotiated down with Juve GM Beppe Marotta keen to hear from Woodward about a price for Memphis Depay. It all needs to be thrashed out.
But in France, they're convinced there's a deal to be made. Pogba has told Les Bleus teammates he's ready to return. It was significant that Patrice Evra, who followed Pogba to Juve, refused to shut the door on his friend joining United when pressed last week. It's been discussed inside the France camp. And scribes close to the squad say Pogba has become increasingly animated as negotiations involving Raiola have rumbled on.
Just as Ferguson convinced Hughes some 28 years ago that things had changed, so Mourinho is attempting to do the same with Pogba. It'll be a record deal. A deal for the ages. And one which could only happen with Mourinho pulling the strings.
