"FREE Mkhitaryan" has not quite made it as a mainstream internet meme yet, but if the Armenian stays rooted to the bench today when Manchester United visit Everton, it may well reach such status.

You presume that two man-of-the-match awards in his last three appearances would guarantee the former Borussia Dortmund star a place in Jose Mourinho’s starting XI, but heck, you never know.

The thing about Henrikh Mkhitaryan is that, of Mourinho’s four summer signings, he is the one who is easiest to drop. Eric Bailly, when not injured, as he is now, is simply better than his other centre-backs. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the only genuine, proven centre-forward in this squad and Paul Pogba is a world record transfer. You don’t drop him, unless you really want to stir the pot (and, again, this is Mourinho we’re talking about, anything is possible).

There is also a reasonable tactical argument to be made and it has nothing to do with that “intensity of the Premier League” nonsense you hear some ex-pros spout; anyone who doubts this need only look up what the football was like in Dortmund under Thomas Tuchel or his predecessor, one Jurgen Klopp.

More simply, it’s hard for Mourinho to accommodate Mkhitaryan, Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney in the same line-up, at least with Ibrahimovic up front. Two of those guys is enough of a stretch, three is something that’s anathema to Mourinho, at least in a competition he cares about.

And Mata, of course, has arguably been United’s best attacking player this year, while Rooney is, well, Rooney. Yet Mkhitaryan’s performances can’t be ignored for much longer. He has kept his head down, he hasn’t complained, he’s been a model pro. Continuing to ignore him wouldn’t just hurt United, it would also send the wrong message to the rest of the squad, suggesting that no matter how hard you work and how little you moan, you won’t get a look in. Even when you’re arguably one of the three most talented players at the club.

If Mourinho plays his cards right, Mkhitaryan could be, as the saying goes, “like a new signing”. Already, despite the recent results, there are signs United’s performances are improving dramatically. That alone might be unsettling for Mourinho who, for the first time in his career, is reaping far less than he sows. But if he can cope with it and open the door for Mkhitaryan, he might well be the ultimate beneficiary.

And if he doesn’t? Well, he will have made his bed. And he can’t have any complaints.

SOME just shook their heads cynically at revelations that a number of high-profile football folks – most notably Cristiano Ronaldo and Mourinho – avoided paying tax on tens of millions of earnings via an offshore scheme.

Those are the people who generally think the worst of others, the ones who didn’t blink when they heard Donald Trump say he didn’t pay taxes for 20 years “because I’m smart”.

That’s the crux of the issue here. We can be outraged at the fact that, if the investigation by 12 leading European media organisations is correct and Ronaldo did squirrel away up to €150 million in offshore tax havens, he avoided paying tens of millions in tax. It doesn’t necessarily mean he did anything illegal. Or, to again quote President-elect Trump, that he didn’t “simply use the laws of the land to his advantage”.

Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo’s agent, in a statement issued by his company, Gestifute, maintains that is exactly what happened. Everything was above board. And the implication is simple: if we don’t like it, blame the system, the tax loopholes that allow this sort of thing.

There is still a moral stink about it, sure, but moral outrage and crime are two distinct things. And, in this case, it would take a long, complicated and boring case of tax law to establish the truth. Best to sit this one out and wait for the courts to reach a conclusion.

But there’s another point to make here. The documents at the heart of the investigation were provided by the Football Leaks organisation. It’s a shadowy, anonymous group which, for the past 18 months, has leaked copies of contracts and other legal documents, mainly by posting them online. How they obtained them is unclear and, indeed, those on the receiving end have suggested this is simple hacking and cyber-theft.

It’s wise to consider this, too, before we get on our high horse.

WHAT do we learn when we ask more than 25,000 professional footballers to pick their best XI?

That when it comes to being influenced by hype, name recognition and what they watch on TV, they are no different to the fan on the street.

FIFPro, the world players’ union, released their 55 man “shortlist” last week. In reality, more than a short-list, it’s simply a list of the top vote getters in each category: five goalkeepers, 20 defenders, 15 midfielders and 15 forwards. Naturally, there are plenty of head-scratchers, like Serge Aurier, who started just 28 games in 2016. And Thomas Mueller, who last scored a league goal in April.

What is most telling here perhaps is that Barcelona have no fewer than nine players on the list (and it would have been 10 if they had hung on to Claudio Bravo), while Real Madrid have gone one better. Part of it, of course, is polarisation, with the cream all flowing to the biggest, wealthiest clubs.

But a lot of it is merely a bunch of young men picking the guys they have heard of and watch on TV. Because the biggest lie that we can tell ourselves is that this is a case of professional footballers voting for their peers. The voters may be professionals, but they come from 70-odd nations and the majority, far from getting rich off football, merely subsist on it.

In other words, they are a lot like the rest of us.