Sir Alex's biggest mistake? The day Pogba decided to leave Man Utd

It's the decision that has gone down as one of Sir Alex Ferguson's biggest mistakes in his 27 years at Manchester United.

While there are some choices Ferguson has subsequently admitted to being errors, Jaap Stam's sale to Lazio in 2001 the most prominent, the Scot has, as of yet, not acknowledged his role in the failure to keep Paul Pogba at Old Trafford.

Pogba is now a regular for France and the rock around which Massimiliano Allegri’s Juve side is built. As pivotal midfielders go, there are few who look more prepared for a magnificent career in the longer term than the 22-year-old. Yet it is four years to this day since his confidence hit rock-bottom and he was forced to make a huge choice regarding the direction his career must take.

On December 31, 2011, Premier League basement boys Blackburn Rovers arrived in M16 with only two league wins to their name but United had something of an injury crisis. With Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling all unavailable, Ferguson was forced into a string of changes as he looked to back-up 5-0 victories over Fulham and Wigan with what should have been a straight-forward three points.

The decision to switch Michael Carrick to centre-back to cover for the multitude of absentees should have opened the way for Pogba. Having played a part in three League Cup games through the autumn and developed a glowing reputation in United’s youth teams, it appeared that the then-18-year-old was ready to make the step up to the first team.

Yet Ferguson, celebrating his 70th birthday, chose a bizarre central-midfield pairing of Park Ji-Sung and Rafael, Pogba was left on the substitutes’ bench. United went down to a surprise 3-2 defeat, and the France midfielder didn't see a single minute of the action.

Ferguson picked out the unfamiliar midfield as a mitigating factor behind the defeat after the match. “We missed the craft and experience of Michael Carrick in the middle of the pitch, so the midfield we played today was really makeshift in terms of Ji-Sung Park – not a centre midfield player, and Rafa’s not a centre midfield player,” he admitted.

“That’s what I had to do in terms of giving us a proper foot in the game.”

Pogba saw it as a lack of belief in his own ability. He felt ready and raring to go for Manchester United, but Ferguson was not ready to give him the chance he needed. For Pogba, it was the breaking point.

“It was a very, very difficult moment for me because I was in love with Manchester and I was a Mancunian, he told Canal+ in 2014.

“It was the match against Blackburn in December 2011 at Old Trafford. Paul Scholes had retired, Darren Fletcher was injured. There was no one left to play in midfield, and I was training and I was beginning to get better bit by bit and the manager never stopped telling me, ‘You’re this far’.

“And I didn’t understand. This far away from what? Playing? From having some playing time? From getting on the field? Or what?

“But there was Rafael in midfield and I was disgusted. I was disgusted and I didn’t get on either.”

Ferguson later claimed in his book ‘Leading’ that the presence of Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola had massively complicated the situation.

“There are one or two football agents I simply do not like, and Mino Raiola is one of them,” explained Ferguson. “I distrusted him from the moment I met him… and eventually he wound up representing Pogba, who was only 18 years old at the time.

“We had Paul under a three-year contract, and it had a one-year renewal option which we were eager to sign. Raiola suddenly appeared on the scene and our first meeting was a fiasco. He and I were like oil and water.

“From then our goose was cooked because Raiola had been able to ingratiate himself with Paul and his family and the player signed with Juventus.”

Pogba claims, though, that his natural desire to prove himself immediately instigated his move to Italy.

“Alex Ferguson told me: ‘You’re a youngster from the academy, you’re not ready yet. You must be patient… Scholes was, Giggs was.’ But I’m not Giggs, I’m not Scholes. I just really wanted to play.”

And didn’t he prove it.

He headed for Turin the following summer with only 68 minutes of league football to his name and quickly forced his way into Juventus’ title-winning midfield. His contribution was crucial as the Bianconeri racked up a second straight Serie A title, and they have since added two more with Pogba at the heart of things. He also has 27 France caps to his name and is set to play a key part for Les Bleus in their home campaign at Euro 2016.

Meanwhile, United are struggling to have a forceful impact from midfield. Since Scholes’ retirement in 2013 they have offered very little mobile threat from the middle and have been made to pay for that. The link that Pogba provides between midfield and attack would be a huge asset to the current United side.

Instead, they are left to wonder if things might have developed differently. Ferguson had made Scholes and Giggs wait, but Pogba wasn’t ready to sit around while full-backs and wingers were being chosen in his position. And now he continues to underline what a loss he was.