Manchester United are hoping Paul Pogba’s acquisition for a world-record £89.3m represents the beginnings of a power shift whereby they no longer have to accept that the world’s top footballers consider the Spanish giants a more attractive proposition.
As Pogba clocked into Old Trafford for his first day as the most expensive footballer in the world, the club’s hierarchy are heralding his arrival as hard evidence that the Glazer family, for all the criticism and hostility they still attract, have re-established United at the front of the transfer market, capable of showing the same kind of financial muscle as Real Madrid and Barcelona and willing to take them on in a way that did not always happen in previous years.