"And on the pedestal, these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away."
That is an excerpt from the poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley (the inspiration for the title of the second-best episode of Breaking Bad). It tells the story of an ancient Egyptian Pharoah who created a dynasty that he thought would never collapse but over time, it crumbled and fell away into history.
When thinking about Manchester United I often come back to it. If you asked me or any other fan back in Sir Alex Ferguson's reign whether the good times would ever end, they'd probably laugh at you and say how could it ever happen; at most, it would just be a few average years and then United would sort themselves out.
READ MORE: Paul Pogba may have inadvertently taught Manchester United and Erik ten Hag a key lesson
Reality, however, is often disappointing; United have now not won a trophy in five years and the title has eluded them for almost a decade. They have been through five managers with a sixth on the way and this season they will finish on their worst points total of the Premier League era, while Manchester City are chasing their fourth title in five years and Liverpool, a historic quadruple.
But this situation is just par for the course now; what made me return to this poem this time was the situation of Paul Pogba. Almost a decade ago, on July 1st 2012, the 19-year-old United midfielder joined Italian side Juventus on a free transfer.
Though incredibly talented, the young Frenchman's wage and first-team football demands were seen as unrealistic by Ferguson and he was allowed to depart from Old Trafford. Fast forward to July 1st 2022 and 29-year-old United midfielder Pogba could again join Juventus on a free transfer this summer according to reports in Italy.
It's been reported that the Frenchman's agents will meet with the Italian side on Monday to find an agreement over wages and other contract details while Paris Saint-Germain are also interested. You could call it Groundhog Day, but the 'could' in that statement should be taken very liberally.
In hindsight, Ferguson's United were on the decline and the age and state of the team reflected that. One of the reasons Pogba left the club was that his minutes in the first team were being eaten up by a 36-year-old Paul Scholes who had come out of retirement.
The mentality at the club was very much 'win now' and to get the best out of these players and Ferguson while they still had them, with not much attention paid to the future. Pogba was the first casualty of an internal conflict that would rage long into the following decade after the legendary Scottish manager's retirement.
Ferguson allowing Pogba to leave was seen as part of the bigger picture; his talent was sacrificed to stop United from becoming a circus of high wages and player power ... and look how well that turned out.
Fast forward to today and the United that many hoped that the selling of Pogba would avoid has come to fruition. The Frenchman was bought back from Juventus in 2016 for a record fee and is one of the highest earners at the club, but the likes of David de Gea, Cristiano Ronaldo and even the 22-year-old Jadon Sancho are receiving ridiculously high wages, even when adjusted for the inflation that has happened in football over the past decade.
Erik ten Hag has a lot to sort out at United over the next few seasons on the pitch while John Murtough has problems to solve behind the scenes, but steps are being made in the right direction in both cases. But again it seems like Pogba will be a casualty.
The story of Pogba is an unfortunate one; a player who for many reasons always seemed out of place at the club. His career is directly intertwined with the downfall of United, even if he is in no way responsible for it.
It seems almost poetic that at the start of a new chapter at United, we return to the back to the beginning of the previous one. Bring the 19-year-old academy starlet that left the club in 2012 forward to today and he would likely be a major player in Ten Hag's rebuild, but instead, at 29 years old Pogba has now become the sort of 'win now' player who doesn't fit the long-term plans of the club.
Ferguson's United is now like Ozymandias' empire, a relic of the past and the club must move forward and part of that is learning lessons from the tale of Pogba and avoiding the mistakes that came from both his spells at the club. In that way hopefully, Ten Hag can start building his own dynasty that fans can enjoy for years to come.
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