Anthony Martial may end up following in the footsteps of other star Jose Mourinho outcasts

Aditya Devavrat 09:17 06/08/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Will Martial be the latest talented player to flourish away from Mourinho?

    Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah, Romelu Lukaku … and Anthony Martial. Is that a game of spot the pattern, or a “one of these is not like the other”?

    Jose Mourinho got a lot of grief last season as De Bruyne and Salah shone for Manchester City and Liverpool respectively.

    Both were Chelsea discards during Mourinho’s second spell at the club. So was Lukaku, but he’s ended up playing under Mourinho at Manchester United and has flourished – unlike his team-mate Martial.

    The young Frenchman arrived with much fanfare at the end of the 2015 summer window, with United having plucked a seemingly unknown for an eye-popping transfer fee – the initial £36million outlay was itself the highest transfer paid for a teenager at that point.

    And, if you add on add-ons, the overall sum has the legs to exceed £57million. One of those such contractual terms is said to include a clause for Martial winning the Ballon d’Or.

    In today’s market, £57million for a future Ballon d’Or winner would be a steal. Kylian Mbappe‘s transfer fee is roughly three times that.

    Whether Martial has the potential to the best player in the world in the future remains to be seen. He’s shown flashes of immense talent – instantly, at United, scoring a famous solo goal within minutes of coming on during debut against rivals Liverpool, and on plenty of occasions since.

    Indeed, talent is the not the question. The question is whether he applies himself well enough or not – and whether his manager is stifling him.

    Martial embodies two of the loudest criticisms of Mourinho – that he wastes or ruins young players, and that he can’t work with players who have flair. And it’s true that the former Chelsea, Porto, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid manager demands a certain work rate in defence from his attacking players, causing some of those players to struggle as a result.

    Thus the belief, seemingly held by the player himself along with many fans and pundits, is that Martial would thrive under a different manager. If he were given more freedom to express himself, he could well end up being the best player in the world.

    Yet he’s actually coming off the most productive season of his United career, tallying 11 goals and nine assists in all competitions in 2017-18. He had a great first-half to the season, before fading after the arrival of Alexis Sanchez.

    Which brings up the second criticism of Mourinho. Buying a big-name star in a season where an established young player was doing well is cited as one of the reasons for Martial’s poor second-half to the campaign.

    The Frenchman, who was left out of the Les Bleus World Cup squad, was moved over to the right wing to accommodate the Chilean, despite having thrived on the opposite flank, and ended up getting fewer minutes as he slipped below Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata in the pecking order, thus losing form and confidence.

    And then this summer, which began with his agent saying Martial wanted to leave United, ended with him being left behind in Manchester as the squad flew to Munich for their final pre-season friendly. In the middle, he became a father, but took flak from Mourinho for not returning quickly enough after the birth of his child.

    The club don’t want to grant his wish to leave, as they see the same talent that Martial’s fans do and are loathe to the idea of that talent flourishing elsewhere, as De Bruyne, Salah, and Lukaku have after leaving a Mourinho-managed club. Mourinho is apparently less fussed, disgruntled by a player who doesn’t meet his standards of work rate and commitment to the cause.

    However legitimate the criticisms of Mourinho may be, though, he’s not foolish enough to discard a player with “best in the world” potential without reason – especially not after spending a year hearing about Salah and De Bruyne. If he’s willing to let Martial go, his complaints about a lack of application or work ethic may be worth heeding.

    After all, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil, and Eden Hazard have all excelled under Mourinho, even if they didn’t exactly love playing for him.

    United fans are hoping Martial joins that list of players, rather than the one headlined by De Bruyne, Salah, and Lukaku. But is there a possibility that he doesn’t have the dedication to join either?

    It may end up being his next manager’s job to find out.

    Recommended