Man Utd's Anthony Martial misery continues
Karan Tejwani
- 7 Jun 2022 08:58 BST
- 3 min read
Manchester United are keen to offload forward Anthony Martial this summer, but as things stand, it looks to be quite a challenge for the club.
Martial has struggled for form over the last two seasons, and even spent the second half of the 2021-22 campaign away on loan at Sevilla, where he failed to make a mark.
The French forward joined Manchester United in a £54 million deal back in 2015 and while he had seasons of fine form and potential, he has staggered over the last two campaigns.
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The 26-year-old has scored just eight goals for the Red Devils over the last two campaigns, which is hardly a great record for a team struggling for goalscoring outlets.
Where has it gone wrong for Anthony Martial?
It was widely expected that by this point in his career, he would be Manchester United’s first-choice, but it’s now 2022, and the club are still looking for a consistent goalscorer.
Martial’s loan spell at Sevilla didn’t raise much hope of an improvement: at times, he was criticized by fans and media for his lack of effort, while manager Julen Lopetegui was also unimpressed by the ease at which he worked at.
The torrid loan spell ended with Martial scoring just one goal for Sevilla, which came in the Europa League, and the Spanish club made it clear that they were going to send the forward back to Manchester United rather than pursue a deal.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Manchester United were looking to make a deal of their own that would seemingly benefit all three parties involved.
It was proposed that they planned to use Martial in a deal for Benfica forward Darwin Nunez, but that proposal was rejected by the Portuguese club, as they felt he wasn’t “compatible” for the team, and that he would cost too much.
There was a fear among the United hierarchy that if Anthony Martial left under Jose Mourinho, he could go on to embarrass them by becoming one of the best players in Europe [@hirstclass] pic.twitter.com/6SUrCMbcjm
— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) May 29, 2022
Benfica want £100 million for Nunez this summer, and United felt Martial could be used as part of the deal, but the Frenchman’s £250,000-a-week wages would be difficult for most clubs to take on or negotiate.
That is another problem for the Red Devils to deal with – his wages are far too high for any club to negotiate a permanent transfer, and it may have to come down to another loan deal if United are to offload Martial this year.
The forward isn’t expected to be a part of new manager Erik ten Hag’s plans at Manchester United, and getting him off the books seems to be a priority, however, it will be one of the club’s bigger challenges this year.
