French midfielder, Alexandre Raineau, believes that if Abou Diaby hadn’t been so injury prone, he could have been better than Manchester United’s Paul Pogba.

Raineau, 30, who currently plays for third-tier French club, Châteauroux, was at Clairefontaine football academy with Diaby from 1999-2002 and seems to highly rate the former Gunner.

“Without his injury problems, he could have been better than Paul Pogba,” he told SFR Sport.

Pogba signed for United from Juventus in the summer for a whopping £89m whereas Diaby left Arsenal in 2015 for free. The graceful midfielder never fully recovered from his broken ankle given to him in 2006 by Sunderland player, Dan Smith.

However, there are similarities from our Gazelle-like midfielder and United’s.

Although Pogba’s four League goals and three assists for United this season is hardly mindblowing, in Serie A last season, he scored eight and assisted 13. While in Italy, he developed his explosive, creative playing style, not dissimilar to Diaby’s, and at 6’3″, he’s only an inch shorter than our former midfielder.

Diaby, however, isn’t taking home £15m-a-year in wages. He’s currently playing for Marseille, the team he signed for when he left Arsenal, where he’s only made six appearances in total since joining due to injury.

The 30-year-old is currently sidelined after being ruled out for four months back in October after he had ankle surgery to correct a ‘pain’.