Paul Pogba has been a bit of an enigma since arriving at Manchester United.

While the Frenchman has gone through periods of unstoppable brilliance, they have been punctuated by spurts of truly ordinary performances.

Under Jose Mourinho, the World Cup winner was largely anonymous and his fallout with the Portuguese manager saw him relegated to the bench on a number of occasions.

There is no questioning his talent, but you can be sure that United fans would love for him to showcase it on a more consistent basis throughout the season.

Before signing for the Manchester giants, Pogba was absolutely tearing up in Italy with Juventus and as a result, commanded a then world record fee of over £90 million.

United didn’t baulk at that eye-watering figure and made Pogba their marquee signing of the decade, let alone the season.

However, it all could have been so different for the midfielder, who was being monitored by more than just the Red Devils.

In fact, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu admitted in recent comments that the Spanish giants were very interested in Pogba’s signature, but were simply priced out of the deal by Juve’s astronomical asking price.

“In the summer of 2015, Paul Pogba was playing in Turin and we simply told Juve that, if one day they decide to sell the player, we would be interested,” Bartomeu told ESPN FC.

“When they sold the player, they told us what the offer would have to be and we couldn’t afford that amount of money at the time.

“So he went to United, and he’s making them better as a team because he’s one of the stars of the world of football right now.”

Those are not words Bartomeu would have uttered on too many occasions before.

Imagine Barcelona, one the biggest and wealthiest clubs in the world, throwing in the towel on a deal because they were unable to afford it.

Barca’s reluctance was good news for United though, who swooped in and wrapped up the transfer.

Now, Pogba will be hoping to upset the odds again as United welcome the Catalans to Old Trafford for a monumental Champions League quarter-final clash.

It promises to be quite a night.