Paul Pogba set for first Manchester United start as he continues his football life less ordinary

Richard Jolly focuses on Paul Pogba as the world's most expensive footballer gets ready to make his second debut – and first start – for Manchester United.

Jose Mourinho has said Paul Pogba will start on Friday against Southampton but said hr is not expecting a "super performance" from the world's most expensive footballer. Hannah McKay / Reuters

Join a club at 16. Make a first start at 23. It suggests slow progress, seven years of lurking in the shadows, playing in the reserves, perhaps being loaned out or injured or simply forgotten. It is scarcely a career path that screams greatness.

But Paul Pogba is no normal footballer and his, already, has been a footballing life less ordinary.

He came to Manchester United in 2009 and left, frustrated by a lack of first-team chances, for a mere £800,000 (Dh3.6 million) three years later.

He has rejoined for £89m. A belated full debut, delayed after seven substitute appearances, four years in Turin and a one-match suspension that ruled him out of Sunday's win at Bournemouth, will eventually come on Friday.

The United midfield functioned well at the Vitality Stadium when Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini were surprisingly twinned but formed an effective alliance.

Pogba’s last game was the Euro 2016 final and France’s surprise defeat to Portugal was almost six weeks ago but Jose Mourinho has vowed to pick him.

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“He is ready to play,” the United manager said. “We played against Leicester with players with less training than him and we look at that match as a way to improve them, to accelerate that process.

“With Paul, it’s a bit of the same: not one single minute of any pre-season match or friendly but almost two weeks of work with us.”

Pogba is ready but not match-fit, able to play but not, Mourinho thinks, at his optimum level or for the whole game.

“Ninety minutes, I don’t believe; super performance, I don’t believe,” he said.

It is unrealistic to expect Pogba to resemble an £89m footballer just yet.

But his presence guarantees there will be a sense of occasion about Old Trafford on Friday.

Pogba’s image will grace the cover of the programme, albeit with his bleach-blond look.

He has since dyed his hair red to mark his United return. Eyes would have been trained on him anyway, but he will be especially visible.

And it promises to be a day to remember as well as one that says much about the modern-day United.

Their storied history contains many an achievement, but United had never broken the world transfer record before.

Pogba’s arrival reflects a recent fondness for status symbols. United’s validation used to come from silverware. Now it comes from spending.

And United have spent the summer presenting glamorous acquisitions: first Mourinho, then Henrik Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly, most recently Zlatan Ibrahimovic and now Pogba.

The super-rich operate among a level of the super-famous.

It is telling that Pogba’s agent — or super-agent — Mino Raiola has spent some of his considerable commission on a Miami villa formerly owned by Al Capone.

Pogba has spent a fraction of his sizeable earnings in rather less glamorous surroundings, at Nando’s, in the company of both a new and an old teammate.

He has renewed a friendship with Jesse Lingard, another of United’s 2011 FA Youth Cup-winning side. United’s is not a dressing room full of strangers for him.

“He has adapted really easily because he knows the club, knows everybody,” Mourinho said.

“He has no need to have time to adapt, but he’ll need time to build his condition and his understanding of how the team plays and how he’ll fit in with that.”

The acclimatisation process begins on Friday.

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