Paul Pogba compared to Sir Alex Ferguson transfer flop

Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have compared Paul Pogba to former Manchester United flop Juan Sebastian Veron.

Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson broke the British transfer record to land Veron for £28.1m back in 2001 from Lazio.

“I just remember him being a flash in the pan, before he came to Man United you expected big things,” Richards told the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast.

“He’s like Pogba, Pogba’s stayed longer but when you watch Pogba, you want him to do something brilliant every time and the same with Veron as well you wanted him to score 40-yard goal or 60-yard pass, it was just a little bit fast for him.

“He wanted to slow down the tempo a little bit. This is what I don’t understand, people always ask me, why did it not always happen?

“You’ve got that ability, he worked hard, it’s consistency. His ability was off the scale, wasn’t it, it’s one thing I’ve wondered. By all accounts, he worked really, was a good lad, it just didn’t work out.”

Shearer added: “I definitely agree with the Pogba comparison, think everyone looked at Veron and thought ‘wow, what a player,’ £28m which was a lot of money then and everyone was expecting that of him every week. Ability-wise it was in there.”