Martial has had a turbulent two seasons at Old Trafford after finishing as the highest goal-scorer in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first full season. However, he has scored just once this season and has been restricted predominantly to the bench as the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo this season and Edinson Cavani last season have totally nullified his chances.
In November, Martial’s agent Philippe Lamboley had informed last month that the forward is all set to leave United, a move that could happen as quickly as the January window that is coming up in a few days. On Monday, the news was confirmed by Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick, who said that the Frenchman revealed his intentions in a conversation with him.
The German stated that Martial feels this is the right time to head into another chapter. Rangnick, who joined the club on an interim basis last month, mentioned that he understands what he is going through, but is reluctant to let go off the player in a situation like this, where the club has been adversely impacted by the pandemic.
The Red Devils are still actively pursuing their ambitions to get a title across three competitions, although they are far behind in terms of quality in the Premier League and Champions League race. There is a decent opportunity for them to go all the way in the FA Cup, a chance they wouldn’t want to miss out on, a point reiterated by the tactician.
“He explained to me he’s been at Manchester United now for the last seven years and he feels it’s the right time for a change, to go somewhere else.
I think in a way this is understandable, I could follow his thoughts but on the other hand, it’s also important to see the situation of the club,”
Rangnick stated.
Although Rangnick mentioned that there is no offer for the Frenchman from any club, he was heavily linked with a move to Spanish club Sevilla, where Julen Lopetegui seemingly is a great admirer of the 26-year-old. The stumbling block for this move to transpire are Martial’s pretty high wages (250,000 pounds per week).
According to The Athletic, United are pushing the La Liga club to pay half his wages in a loan deal. But even half of that amount, which sums up around 125,000 pounds a week, is a sum Sevilla don’t pay for most of their star players, making it a pretty difficult deal to negotiate, but just the way it happened in the case of Alexis Sanchez, they could be paying more than half his salary to accommodate a move.
Martial was hailed as the next Thierry Henry when he joined the Red Devils in a staggering 36-million-pound move, a fee potentially rising up to 58 million pounds with add-ons. This was a world-record fee for a teenage footballer, surpassing PSG’s bid for Marquinhos. He made his debut at Old Trafford against Liverpool in September 2019, coming in as a substitute, and scored the eventual goal of the season to mark one of the greatest debut moments ever.
He had a stellar start, scoring four times in his first three appearances, but the goals started drying out in the coming weeks. He netted 17 goals in his first season and struggled to find form in the next three seasons, scoring eight, 11 and 12 goals, respectively, despite making more than 40 appearances on each occasion.
Since the start of last season, Martial scored just eight goals, further restricting him to the bench at the Old Trafford-based club.
