Here are the reasons why Jose Mourinho wanted to get rid off Anthony Martial.
Anthony Martial cut a frustrated figure under the management of Jose Mourinho. The Frenchman made an excellent start under Louis Van Gaal during his first season, but his career never picked off ever since.
Former Monaco forward scored 18 goals and produced 11 assists from 56 appearances in his first season from the club, but the arrival of Mourinho has deteriorated his confidence because of the lack of manager’s trust.
The Red Devils broke the bank for Romelu Lukaku; meaning Marcus Rashford and Henrik Mkhitaryan played through either of the wings. This forced Martial to warm the bench, starting just 26 games in the subsequent season. The forward started the same number of games in Mourinho’s second season and placed a transfer request in the summer.
During the first part of the season, Anthony Martial started just 15 games. With results faltering, Manchester United eventually planned to sack their manager Jose Mourinho. The former Chelsea boss was replaced by the club legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose temporary stint was top-notch. Since his appointment on a permanent basis, it has largely not worked out because of various reasons; starting from defensive woes to awful finishing.
Anthony Martial played a huge hand during Solskjaer’s honeymoon last season, but the results faltered, so did the forward. It is proving to be a bad decision to hand him a new contract because of the unseen talent; which is unseen till date.
Jose Mourinho did get it right.
According to the Times, Jose Mourinho wanted to sell the forward because he was weak mentally. Another problem he rectified within Martial is the sulking mentality during games. Minor setbacks seemed larger for Martial – forcing him to try too hard and eventually fail.
Jose Mourinho was adamant about land Ivan Perisic in the summer of 2017, but the move never materialized because of the transfer fee variance between Inter Milan and Manchester United.
Here’s how Twitter has reacted..
What’s next?
What’s done cannot be erased. Anthony Martial will be hoping to put a good performance against Southampton away in the upcoming weekend following a disappointing defeat to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.
