How Paul Pogba to Chelsea Could Blow Open the 2015 Summer Transfer Window
The story goes a little something like this.
Roman Abramovich was flying over London in the summer of 2003 in his helicopter, fuelled with a voracious desire to buy a football club. He spotted Stamford Bridge, liked the look of it and soon after changed Chelsea's fortunes forever.
That summer ignited an incredible spending spree, the likes of which we haven't seen since in west London.
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Chelsea signed a total of 15 players, including Juan Sebastian Veron, Damien Duff and Hernan Crespo.
That trio cost a combined £49.2 million, with Chelsea's total outlay stretching to £111 million.
There have been busy summers at Chelsea since, but none can match the investment from those first few months when Abramovich took charge. That was the pinnacle.
In so doing, the Chelsea owner reinvigorated the transfer market. He injected some energy back into European football, and it wasn't just Chelsea who benefited.
We were used to the usual suspects being able to dictate how things worked, but not anymore. Abramovich raised the benchmark.
Indeed, it was only a few weeks earlier that David Beckham had moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid, and his transfer out of Old Trafford was soon being trumped by Chelsea's activity.
Which is where Paul Pogba comes to mind in 2015.
If we believe everything we read, the French ace could cost anywhere north of £60 million for the buying club, should he leave Juventus this summer.
Manchester City have recently bid just shy of that according to La Gazzetta dello Sport (per the Mirror) and the result is that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are expected to join a bidding war for his signature.
Jose Mourinho has denied in the past that Chelsea are interested in Pogba, but if he is available, it would be folly for Chelsea to not join the race for him.
The Frenchman is young, talented and whatever investment Chelsea put into him now, the expectation is the dividends will be repaid over a long period of time.
In the short term, a move for Pogba will send shock waves throughout the transfer market.
Suddenly Juventus will be flush, and like we saw with Chelsea circa 2003, that means money filtering it's way across Europe.
The dominoes are perfectly aligned—it just needs Pogba to give one a nudge.
On the back of Chelsea's spending over a decade ago, West Ham United were able to stabilise themselves following relegation.
Chelsea paid their London rivals £12.6 million for Glenn Johnson and Joe Cole. That revenue was vital to the Hammers keeping afloat, propping them up as they weathered the storm of dropping into the Football League.
Elsewhere, Blackburn Rovers invested the majority of Duff's £17 million fee into bringing six players to Ewood Park, including Barry Ferguson from Rangers, for whom they paid £7.5 million.
In today's market, those fees don't seem wholly significant, yet a decade ago, they were. The days of TV broadcasters pouring billions upon billions into the Premier League hadn't arrived, and sugar-daddy owners weren't as prevalent as they have since become.
Somewhere down the line, the money men at clubs across England and the rest of the continent were spending Abramovich's roubles.
What does it mean for Juventus? The Pogba money would suddenly put them in the market for players previously beyond their means.
They haven't been linked with a Kevin De Bruyne, but being cash rich would change that.
Money breeds power, and Juventus would have it. Costs would be driven up as a result and clubs in a panic would inevitably give in to the demands being made to fend off rivals.
Big transfers bring about a Wild West approach, the gun-slinging soon follows. When a club with the stature of Juventus is flashing their wad, it only adds to the pandemonium.
Why? Because they can attract the players that Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool can't. Juventus are Serie A champions, the Champions League runners-up.
Pogba moving to Chelsea would be about much more than following where the money goes, of course. It'll be just as intriguing—if not more so—to track the damage the shock waves cause.
The 22-year-old is perhaps the most sought-after player on the continent right now, and those clubs pinning their hopes on persuading him to join them will have to quickly assess what their next move will be.
Real Madrid's ego will be severely dented if they make a move and are rebuffed. Florentino Perez is a man who doesn't take too kindly to being told "no," so how will he react?
Almost every summer since the turn of the century, Real have signed the player most on trend.
They've captured Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez in more recent times. Now it's Pogba who is the object of Europe's desires.
Pogba choosing Stamford Bridge will punch a more significant blow to Manchester City.
Not only will Manuel Pellegrini be missing out on a big target to help transform the team that failed so miserably in their defence of the Premier League title last season, it will be confirmation that the Etihad Stadium is secondary in the minds of Europe's elite.
It would be an event to undermine the views of City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
"We're a club players want to come and play for," Al Mubarak told City TV, via BBC Sport.
"We were having to pay big premiums to attract the players we wanted to attract given we weren't in Europe [when Sheikh Mansour first purchased the club]. We're in a different position. We're an institution today."
To prove that somewhat inflated view of the club, City need to follow up with signing players of substance in order to reinvigorate their fortunes.
If they lose out on Pogba, we can expect a move elsewhere to eclipse the transfer.
What we're witnessing now is clubs making big moves to assert authority. Winning trophies is the ultimate acid test for who holds the power, but financial clout runs it a close second.
Where will Pogba end up this summer? Will he even leave Juventus?
Whatever the outcome, you get the feeling plenty rides on him.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.
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