Anthony Martial looks set to leave Manchester United in the summer.
Martial is one of the most exciting young players in the world but could become the latest creative attacking player to find himself surplus to requirements under Jose Mourinho.
Despite only starting 21 of his 41 games this season, the French forward has scored 11 goals and registered seven assists, with all but one of those contributions coming before the end of January when Alexis Sanchez joined the club.
Since then, he has made just four appearances in the Premier League and a summer exit seems likely, according to reports.
Paul Hirst, writing in The Times, reports that Juventus are interested in signing Martial, and the 22-year-old is open to the prospect of joining the Serie A champions. Bayern Munich are also said to be monitoring the player, but Juventus are understood to hold the firmer interest.
Martial signed for United in August 2015 from Monaco, costing a transfer fee of £36m, potentially rising to £58m. He agreed to a four-year deal, with the option of another year.
The Times report claims that he won’t sign a new contract with the club unless he receives assurances that he will play more games than he has in the second-half of this season.
The former Chelsea manager is highly unlikely to give any such assurances. Sanchez is the automatic first-choice starter for the wide-left position, and Marcus Rashford appears to be ahead of Martial as back-up to the Chilean.
The report also claims that Martial was “disappointed” not be allowed discuss a transfer to Arsenal. The Gunners originally floated the idea of including Martial, rather than Henrikh Mkhitaryan, in the swap deal for Sanchez. It appears the French forward was open to the move, but United wouldn’t allow him to open talks with Arsenal
His cousin has also expressed his dissatisfaction with Mourinho in the past few days. Jema Martial tweeted:
“It’s impossible to progress under this coach’s orders. Too many examples prove it. If you see the last two years and the past with Salah, De Bruyne or Lukaku at Chelsea, I don’t invent. I think that for young players who can improve he’s not the good one. Just a view.”
https://twitter.com/JemaMtl_22/status/985564482729627648
https://twitter.com/JemaMtl_22/status/985909281760440320
https://twitter.com/JemaMtl_22/status/985909735164731394
Martial would probably echo these sentiments. A report in The Telegraph claims that the player is “disenchanted”, and he is one of several players who could leave in the summer.
It looks like Mourinho is about to rip up the United squad and reassemble it to fit his outlook. This will cost the club another couple of hundred million and lead to the departure of several talented players who are suffering because they struggled within the limited framework of their manager.
At the end of it all, when this still hasn’t brought significant success, Mourinho will walk away and United still won’t have bridged the gap to Manchester City.
