Paul Scholes has claimed that Manchester United didn’t make a mistake in allowing Paul Pogba to leave the club for Juventus in the summer of 2012, as the young midfielder hadn’t done enough at United to suggest he deserved the money his advisers were asking for him.

Pogba got a chance at United. He had seven sub appearances for United, about what his performances at the time for the Under-21s merited. When I first retired in the summer of 2011, I spent the start of the next season working with Warren Joyce, the coach of the Under-21s. Paul was in that squad and the truth is that while he obviously had bags of potential, he was not really playing well enough in that period up to Christmas 2011 to warrant a place in the first-team squad on a permanent basis, let alone start games. Although I never spoke to Sir Alex about the details, the understanding in the dressing room was that Paul’s advisers just asked for too much money for his next professional deal. They wanted first-team money for a player who was not in the first team at that stage. United felt that was not right and stuck to their principles. He left that summer and very quickly established himself at Juventus, which can happen.

There have been rumours linking Pogba with a return to the club, with figures as much as £60m being quoted, but Scholes reckons this would be a mistake.

I don’t feel they should go back to sign Pogba for the sums being talked about having lost him for the compensation payment. I understand that Chelsea did the same when they bought back Nemanja Matic from Benfica, but his fee was nothing like the numbers quoted for Pogba. It would feel wrong to me.