Martial: Mourinho disrespected me at Manchester United
Karan Tejwani
- 10 Sept 2022 15:55 BST
- 3 min read
Manchester United forward Anthony Martial has opened up about his career at the club and spoken about his relationship with former manager Jose Mourinho.
Martial has had a tough start to the 2022-23 campaign, despite a positive cameo against Liverpool, having spent the second half of last season on loan at La Liga side Sevilla.
During Mourinho’s time at the club, there was speculation of a frisky relationship between he manager and French forward, which affected his form greatly.
Now, Martial has spoken on that time between 2016 and 2019, suggesting that the pair never got off to a good start and it affected the entire relationship between the two.
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Speaking to France Football, Martial revealed plenty about his career at Manchester United, including aspects of his time there under Louis van Gaal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
On Mourinho, he said: "It started with the story of the shirt number. During the holidays, he sends me a message to ask me if I want to take 11, explaining to me that it's great, because it was worn by the legend Ryan Giggs.
"I tell him that I have the greatest respect for Giggs, but that I prefer to keep my number 9. When I return to the club, I see my jersey with the number 11, the story did not start well!. He disrespected me, straight up."
Martial averaged 0.67 expected (and 0.74 actual) non-penalty goal contributions per 90 in the season Mourinho replaced him with Sanchez. That's the best league season from any United attacker in Understat's public record (since 2014/15)
— Aaron Moniz (@amonizfootball) September 10, 2022
Martial then spoke about him missing the 2018 World Cup, which France ended up winning, and he attributed it to the club’s signing of Alexis Sanchez from
Arsenal in the January transfer window of that year.
He said that he was in great form in the first half of the campaign, but the signing of Sanchez meant that he lost his place in the team rather unfairly.
"The second season, I was the team's top scorer in the first part of the season, he [Mourinho] brought in Alexis Sanchez and I hardly played anymore. It cost me dearly. I should have been there at the 2018 World Cup."
Martial then had his best years at Manchester United under Solskjaer, until injuries affected him, while Mourinho went on to manage Tottenham and Roma after his Old Trafford sacking.
