When Platty met Pogba

By Simon Wright.

Paul Pogba

 Paul Pogba, now playing for Monaco, is 33.   He’s a World Cup Winner with nearly a century of full caps for France. He holds 4 Serie A Championship medals.  FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League medals etc.  He’s fluent in 4 languages.  He’s been around the upper echelons of the game for well over a decade.

Everyone has to start somewhere.  In July 2009, the 16-year-old Pogba opted to leave the Le Havre academy and join Manchester United.  The French club were understandably peeved and asked FIFA to intervene as they believed they had an agreement.  In October, FIFA ruled that United had no case to answer and the young midfielder completed his move.

Just days later, the much-hyped French teenager put on a United shirt for the first time.  An away game at Gresty Road in the Premier Academy League at the horrific time of 11.00am.  Even so both fans and journalists turned up. Pogba was in centre midfield alongside Ryan Tunnicliffe (who went on to play pro for various clubs and is now with Adelaide).   Regular United keeper Sam Johnstone missed the game due to injury.   In attack for the Reds were Ravel Morrison and Nicky Ajose (both of whom had decent League careers)

The United Youth reporter described the physique, posture and running style of Pogba which was invariably likened to Patrick Viera. The debutant rarely looked in danger of losing the ball despite being two years younger than most of the Crewe players. There was a long range shot on goal in the first half, one of many in his career.

Dario Gradi’s Crewe Academy famously punched above their weight.  United didn’t phase them particularly. They had talent of their own such as big Jason Oswell up front and an 18-year-old keeper called Daniel Platt. 

Daniel Platt

United were playing all the football but couldn’t create much. Most of their shots flew wide but Platt was on hand to block two Ryan Tunnicliffe efforts.  Crewe were able to break away at times and early in the second half, thry took the lead.  United battled but could still make little headway. Platt stopped everything that the back four could not.    Crewe scored a second and looked comfortable until Will Keane scored an 89^th minute consolation goal. The United reporter praised the organisation of the Crewe defence and the “excellent” Daniel Platt in goal.

The United side went on to top their group and the Crewe defeat was one of only 5 defeats in 28 games.  The Alex used 6 different keepers in their first team that season. None of them was Platty and so he moved on. He bounced around Shropshire and Cheshire clubs before he found his proper home. Pogba’s won a few things but he’s never had to battle through Step 4 play-offs…. He’ll never know what he missed.