The same summer Manchester United re-signed Paul Pogba for a world-record fee that was announced to a targeted overseas audience with a hashtag and a blockbuster trailer, Chelsea signed another French midfielder for almost a third of Pogba's price.
In retrospect, United signed the wrong Gallic general. N'Golo Kante has been the best Premier League signing since, well, N'Golo Kante, and he has enough medals to rival a general: Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, and FA Cup.
Jose Mourinho pioneered the 'Makelele role' at Chelsea and his former club has popularised the 'Kante role'. Kante's on-pitch profile is more aligned with Mourinho than Pogba's, although Mourinho pushed to sign Pogba in 2016.
Mourinho had identified Pogba as a future United captain and WhatsAppd him regularly as he flew from coast to coast in the United States during his post-Euros summer holiday. United were also in dire need of a creative presence in midfield.
Pogba's relationship with Mourinho became so toxic player revelled in manager's sacking on social media and their fallout would warrant its own chapter in the book of United AD (after dominance).
The experience has not completely compromised Mourinho's objectivity. With his Tottenam team 1-0 up against United at half-time last June, he warned the players of Pogba's imminent emergence and the 'beautiful pass' he would play for Marcus Rashford. Pogba picked out Rashford, who miscontrolled when one-on-one. Mourinho clasped hands with Pogba at full-time, just as they did following United's win at Spurs in April.
Mourinho has not concealed his misgivings about Pogba and expressed disgust at the infamous Rolls-Royce incident at Burnley when Pogba's driver, Abs, collected him after United's win in September 2018. Kante famously favoured a Mini and, as early as last year, was still behind the wheel of the same vehicle he used to drive to Leicester City's training ground. Mourinho was in awe of that.
Pogba and Kante are practically opposites in every way: blue and red, little and large, defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder, introvert and extrovert, bargain buy and marquee buy, Mini and Rolls-Royce. At a celebratory ceremony at the Stade de France in 2018, Pogba danced towards the World Cup trophy as if he was John Travolta. Kante bashfully applauded fans. As international midfield partnerships go, few are as complete as theirs.
More fateful than the summer of 2016 was the previous year when Leicester unearthed Kante from Cannes while United recruited an alternative French midfielder. Morgan Schneiderlin was Premier League proven with Southampton and a France international, the £25million transfer fee was reasonable and the signing universally approved by United supporters.
Schneiderlin's first season had not ended when senior United players in the dressing room concluded he was not good enough. Ed Woodward later cited Schneiderlin as a signing who 'wasn't a Manchester United player'. One teammate questioned Schneiderlin's understanding of United's rivalry with Liverpool after the chastening Europa League knockout defeat at Anfield.
Somehow, United recouped £22m from Everton, another north-west Premier League club that fritters vast sums on inadequate players, for Schneiderlin in January 2017. By that point, Kante was midway through a second Premier League title win with a second club and would don a tuxedo to collect the PFA Player of the Year award.
Kante did not so much slip the net as United had no net. In 2015, the manager still had complete autonomy, there was no recruitment department and Woodward was the de facto director of football, flying on a budget airline to try and prise Neymar from Barcelona. That would be too far-fetched for Football Manager.
France's World Cup victory belatedly spurred United into action. There was widespread concern at the club that Louis van Gaal had invested £35m in Memphis Depay at a time French wingers Kylian Mbappe, Kingsley Coman, Thomas Lemar, and Ousmane Dembele were emerging. United mined Anthony Martial from the gold rush but he has hardly been a roaring success.
United have narrowed their search to the midfield. Adrien Rabiot was lined up in 2019 but failure to qualify for the Champions League scuppered a deal before it had even been sized up. In the summer, United approached Eduardo Camavinga's representatives to gauge the midfielder's interest. Camavinga favoured a move to Spain and left Rennes for Real Madrid on deadline day in August.
The Camavinga meeting has resulted in any French midfielder, or midfielder of African ancestry, being linked with United. The club knocked down reports in the summer of an imminent move for Aurelien Tchouameni of Monaco and maybe wished they hadn't after he started alongside Pogba in France's Nations League final win.
Amadou Haidara has become a player of interest since Ralf Rangnick's appointment, owing to his eight-year stint as Red Bull's sporting director, when Haidara was recruited by Red Bull Salzburg and then transferred to RB Leipzig. United are prepared to address their midfield imbalance as early as January but accept a reinforcement is more likely in the summer. By then, Pogba should be off the books.
His replacement is unlikely to get a hashtag.
