Chelsea have been urged to sign Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba on the expiry of his contract this summer by former Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent.
After signing for United for a then-world record fee of £89.3m in 2016, Pogba 's future remains uncertain with his contract set to run out in four months, and with talks over a new one yet to advance.
According to The Telegraph, Pogba is open to staying in the Premier League if he was to leave United on a free in the summer, and talkSPORT pundit Bent thinks that the Blues should pursue the Frenchman to pair him with national teammate, N'Golo Kante.
Bent said: “When [Paul] Pogba plays alongside [N’Golo] Kante he looks like a completely different player. If they [Chelsea] were to sign him... Wow!"
Chelsea have been linked with a host of midfielders for next season including the likes of Declan Rice and Aurelien Tchouameni, but with Pogba potentially available on a free, he could prove a better option.
So, could the French midfielder help Chelsea win trophies?
We simulated next season with Paul Pogba in the Chelsea squad and this is what happened.
We 'signed' Paul Pogba for Chelsea in July 2022
To set up this simulation, we used the Football Manager 2022 editor to arrange for Pogba to join Chelsea at the start of the summer 2022 transfer window, using FM22 to run the simulation.
The Frenchman had a great first season in blue, scoring 10 goals and grabbing three assists in 46 appearances in all competitions.
Pogba performed best in the Premier League and the Carabao Cup, with the 28-year-old making 30 of his appearances in the league, grabbing six goals and two assists in that time.
Across all competitions, Pogba averaged a rating of 7.04 per game, making him one of the best central midfielders in the Chelsea squad.
At the end of the 2022/23 season, Football Manager 2022 put together an overall best Chelsea XI, based on performances, statistics and other metrics. This is what Chelsea's best XI looked like at the end of the 2022/23 season as predicted by Football Manager 2022:
Full Chelsea best XI (3-4-2-1): Mendy; Christensen, Silva, Rudiger; James, Kante, Pogba, Chilwell; Mount, Havertz; Lukaku.
Pogba's impact was big enough to make him a regular in the Chelsea side, keeping Jorginho and Matteo Kovacic out of the starting XI.
When compared to the other midfielders at the club, Pogba was the joint-top scorer along with Mason Mount, and the Frenchman averaged the third-best overall rating, behind Kante and Hakim Ziyech.
The Frenchman also had the highest expected goals out of all the midfielders and won the Player of the Match award three times, the joint second-best in the squad.
So, how did Chelsea perform in the league and cup competitions after signing Pogba in the summer transfer window?
Chelsea's results from the 2022/23 simulation
Chelsea finished second in the Premier League after a great season, but they were still well off first place, finishing 24 points behind Man City.
Despite finishing far off the top spot, the Blues did succeed in the cup competitions, winning the FA Cup and the Champions League.
A Pogba brace on either side of a Roberto Firmino goal saw the Blues beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final.
But the big success came in the Champions League, with a second-half goal from Hakim Ziyech handing Tuchel's side a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich.
Overall, this Football Manager simulation predicts that if Chelsea were to sign Pogba in the summer, he could prove a great addition in midfield next to Kante, helping Chelsea win two trophies, including the UEFA Champions League.
Would you like to see Paul Pogba sign for Chelsea? Let us know in the comments!
