Mousa Dembele is the best midfielder in English football, he’s everything Paul Pogba should be at Manchester United
Belgian magician was the star player as Spurs came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Juventus
THE irony will not have been lost on Manchester United fans.
After all, they spent a world record sum to take Paul Pogba back from Juventus, believing the Frenchman would be their midfield master.
Juve, it seems, have never replaced Pogba.
But in the Juventus Stadium last night, the dominant force, the magician and ball magnet, was the bloke Spurs signed from Fulham as a No 10 in 2012 but who has become the best central midfielder in English football.
And as Mousa Dembele bestrode the big stage as a Colossus, it was hard not to feel that he is, at this point in his career, the player Pogba should be seeking to become.
Dembele may have, at times, glass ankles. It is a bodily frailty which has been a frustration all season, and for the 30-year-old himself as much as Mauricio Pochettino.
Outstanding last term, as Spurs chased Chelsea all the way - despite missing the first four games of the season through his justified eye-poking ban from the previous year - Dembele has struggled to be the same force this time round.
Pochettino has had to fill the void, although that allowed the emergence of Harry Winks, and, to a large extent, got away with it.
NO MORE FAST FOOD This Dembele has been provided his own personal CHEF
But he missed what Dembele, in his pomp, gives his side. And what he demonstrated so ably on Tuesday night.
Just as he did against Manchester United and Arsenal at Wembley, and Liverpool at Anfield, Dembele was the central and focal point of the Champions League tie.
Juve could not get near him. And could not work him out, either.
The ball was stuck to his feet, as he wriggled out of the tightest situations with an agility and athleticism that, once again, belied his huge physical frame.
Take him on for pace or strength - and you lose.
Take him on for talent - and he rips you a new one.
Juve had Sami Khedira - a World Cup winner with Germany - and Miralem Pjanic in the centre. The pair of them barely got a touch.
Dembele was head and shoulders above both, and not just in terms of his stature.
Remember, too, that he was not supposed to be a player to operate at the hub of the team as one of a central pair. He was believed to be a playmaker from a more advanced position.
Yet where Pogba is struggling, badly, when asked to operate deeper for United - as seen at both Wembley and St James' Park in recent weeks - Dembele has managed the conversion.
When he plays like that, Spurs have a platform, one which Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and Harry Kane utilised to the full.
Dembele brings balance, poise, vision, strength and purpose to the team.
There is at least one club who paid £89million expecting they would have brought in exactly those qualities.
Maybe they should have been shopping elsewhere?