ST Mirren manager Alex Rae was so impressed by Hamilton Accies’ debut star Massimo Donati during the Buddies’ 3-0 defeat at the SuperSeal Stadium on Saturday that he compared him to French superstar Paul Pogba.

The 35-year-old midfielder, who spent two seasons at Celtic from 2007-2009 and appeared 17 times for AC Milan, was making his first start for Accies after his move from Bari.

The Italian was the star of the show, barely wasting a pass and capped his performance with the third goal, a controlled side foot finish from 20 yards.

He performed so well that Rae says he looked like he could be worth as much as Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba, the 23-year-old is being heavily linked with a transfer back to Manchester United in a deal which would top £100m, making him the most expensive player in history.

St Mirren struggled to deal with Donati on the day and Rae insists it is a steep learning curve for the centre midfield players who were up against him, Kyle Hutton and Stevie Mallan.

He said: “It was a good learning curve for the players in the middle of the park.

“They were up against Donati, he looked like a superstar in there.

“He could go for £100m never mind Pogba, that is how good he looked at times.

“It’s a case of our boys learning and switching on but there is things going on that I’m clearly not happy about and we’ll pick the bones out of it and try and improve.”