If (and it's looking more like when) Paul Pogba eventually arrives at Manchester United for a world-record transfer fee, it will reaffirm the Premier League's status as the wealthiest, most glamorous division in football. The appetite to watch the English game is massive and the television money generated by global audiences gives even the league's bottom dwellers more financial firepower than all but a handful of foreign clubs.

Yet for all the money -- and the talent it buys -- there are serious questions about the quality of the English game.

Pogba provides a perfect example. The 23-year-old is a driving, attacking midfielder with good feet. He exudes power and plays at the harum-scarum pace of the Premier League.

The Frenchman lacks some of the subtlety that a £100 million-plus fee should bring. He is still young, but he shows few signs of game intelligence of the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Luis Suarez. That would not be a drawback in England.

There is too much emphasis on physicality in the Premier League. Doers, not thinkers, thrive. If you're young and can run and run, you'll fit in nicely. Pogba, with his bursts of explosiveness, would be an instant star. The flaws in his technique would matter less at Old Trafford than they would at the Bernabeu or the Camp Nou.

Strength and energy make for a compelling spectacle. The frantic nature of Premier League games give them an element of unpredictability. The downside is that the English game sometimes lacks pattern and coherence. It shows in the Champions League, where the Premier League's best sides have struggled since Chelsea won the competition in 2012, especially when the opposition take the pace out of the game.

Rafa Benitez once said that tactics barely matter in England. "Compete for the first ball, win the second ball," was the Spaniard's dismissive view of English strategy. He might have exaggerated for effect, but there is a germ of truth in the assertion.

Sam Allardyce, the new England manager, is one of the men responsible. At the turn of the millennium the then Bolton Wanderers manager and the rest of the Premier League were confronted by a new phenomenon: an Arsenal side that played with breathless precision passing, but who were also physically stronger and faster than their rivals.

Using the early versions of analytics programmes, Allardyce worked out a way of slowing down Arsene Wenger's side. By matching their pace and power, it was possible to narrow the gap with the London side. Skill was not necessary to the plan. Instead of following Wenger's magnificent template where technique was the top item on his checklist, the English game went down a blind alley from which it has not completely emerged.

It is ironic that Allardyce, the man who did so much to determine the direction of Premier League football, now has to pick up the pieces at international level after England's disastrous Euro 2016 campaign. Neither Roy Hodgson nor his highly rated Premier League superstars where able to adapt their style to the demands of the opposition. They resorted to bombing the ball forward as they ran out of ideas.

The English domestic game has plenty of money, ability and thrills but does not put a premium on thinking players. On the pitch there is little time for contemplation. Against the better teams in European club competition this paucity of ideas exposes weaknesses. Liverpool blew away Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal when they created a whirlwind tempo at Anfield in the Europa League, but against a canny Sevilla side in the final they were unable to impose their cadence on the game.

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid are at their best when they control the rhythm of a match. Premier League teams thrive when things become discordant and unpredictable.

Pogba should be a comfortable fit in England. He imposes himself on matches like a squall rather than controlling situations. He is unpredictable and tough to mark. England, rather than Italy, is the place he is likelier to find superstar status.

He would add to the excitement. But would he improve the standards of the Premier League or make Manchester United Champions League contenders? Probably not.

The Premier League is some way from producing the best football even when it is packed full of the most expensive players in the game.

Tony Evans has been a sports journalist for more than 20 years. He writes for ESPN FC on the Premier League. Twitter: @tonyevans92a.