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Former Chelsea youngster Josh McEachran was tipped to reach great heights in his career, and at a time, he was the biggest thing to have graduated from the Chelsea academy.

The 23-year-old claims he was on course at Chelsea to become bigger than Manchester United superstar Paul Pogba.

However, things didn’t go as planned. After showing much promise as a teenager under Carlo Ancelotti, an array of loan spells after his sacking saw McEachran eventually leave Chelsea for Championship outfit Brentford. While Pogba left United for Juventus and came back during the summer to become the world’s most expensive player.

The Chelsea academy product believes he was ahead of Pogba and Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.

“I was ahead of those players,” McEachran told The Telegraph.

“I’d heard of Pogba but he wasn’t really around the first team, he was around the Man Utd youth team and reserves.

“Same as Barkley. He wasn’t around their first-team then so I felt I was ahead of them, definitely, back then.”

McEachran will return to Stamford Bridge this weekend, as Chelsea host Brentford in the FA Cup on Saturday.