Martial exit?

It's curious how Martial does have a body of fans who defend and promote him, while there are others who have given much more for the club and the shirt (on lower wages) who are regularly pilloried. Considering how long he's been at Utd, how many good seasons have we had from him - particularly compared to some of our previous strikers? He's on 62 goals in seven seasons (not counting his loan season at Seville). I understand his qualities (which ETH is said to admire), but we just haven't seen nearly enough of them. Partly that's because of frequent injuries, but from the time he arrived under LVG he's shown a moodiness and tendency to not show up in games, as well as some episodes of brilliance.
At 27 he should still have a few decent years in front of him, if he stays injury-free, but if an offer came for him and a move could be agreed, I'd be happy to see him go. That may be easier said than done, so we may be stuck with him until his contract runs out next June. I doubt if he's going to be happy playing as backup striker to Højlund.
 
The first thing he did whe he came on yesterday, controlled a pass, held it up and linked in with the midfield.

It's magical what an actual forward can do.
 
We need a replacement before we sell another player, the midfield is currently screaming out for Fred's energy so we should learn our lesson.

Martial should start the next game up top with Rashford on the wing.
 
Martial will start against Forest, score a couple and set up as well in a thoroughly entertaining coherent team performance.

It will be amazing what happened when we line up up top correctly.
 
GoldanoGraham said:
Martial will start against Forest, score a couple and set up as well in a thoroughly entertaining coherent team performance.

It will be amazing what happened when we line up up top correctly.
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We're afraid to start him because once he gets inevitably injured we're not getting anything for him ever again. Needs sold when he's fit.
 
Problem always leads back to the owners.

EtH would probably agree in private that Martial isn’t good enough, but if he leaves would the owners replace him?

They would probably reply saying Hojlund is your CF get on with it.

So given that choice it’s better to keep Martial just to have the backup.
 
Please sell him immediately.

Someone is coming back and everyone is just going to have to deal with it.
 
pascell said:
Martial hasn't made any impact for this club in seasons, he doesn't need replacing, he needs to be sold.
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You mean - letting go. Nobody wants our players, nobody is buying even healthy ones, let alone Martial who cannot play 90 minutes without getting injured for the next 3 months
 
Would be happy to see him go but then we'd need to sign two strikers/attackers......

The team has no goals in it at all. That needs sorting and our current players can't fix it. Only transfers can
 
NewGlory said:
You mean - letting go. Nobody wants our players, nobody is buying even healthy ones, let alone Martial who cannot play 90 minutes without getting injured for the next 3 months
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Hardly surprising when there was public toxicity and underperformances.
 
such a dick tease to say they'll come in with a hefty fee....ffs they paid 40m for fabinho and 12m for Henderson

if we can't get at least 40m for Martial based on those transfers, someone isn't doing there job
 
bosskeano said:
such a dick tease to say they'll come in with a hefty fee....ffs they paid 40m for fabinho and 12m for Henderson

if we can't get at least 40m for Martial based on those transfers, someone isn't doing there job
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With his fitness record it’s understandable why the bids are flowing in. It’s not about his quality, it’s about his durability and reliability. Even in 10-15 minutes yesterday you could tell that he was technically a step ahead of everyone but that’s his story - an immense talent who nobody can rely on.
 
TwoSheds said:
It would be astounding. Hopefully there's a Saudi United fan owner out there. I don't know who would be available as Martial's replacement if we had say £30-40m to spend but I would assume you could get someone with a bit of talent. How much was that Orban lad supposed to be valued at?
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We could probably get Balogun for £40+5 to 10 in add ons. There is no way Arsenal would be bothered about selling him to us after watching us play so far this season.
 
Its a real conundrum...play him and the team might begin to function...but the risk of Martial injuring himself increases exponentially the longer he is on the pitch...resulting in any potential sale collapsing.

The envious position EtH finds himself in at one of the richest clubs in the world picking between a forward made of glass and a LW.
 
We are too soft of players, how on earth a player with no passion and drive like Martial can stay 8 years is beyond me, and he's supposedly on 200k / week wages.

He would have been booed off the park and sold years ago if it were any other big team.

We need to be more ruthless, no more buying high priced potentially good players. For that price we should be aiming players that have been established instead of buying hopefulls.
 
Sky1981 said:
We are too soft of players, how on earth a player with no passion and drive like Martial can stay 8 years is beyond me, and he's supposedly on 200k / week wages.

He would have been booed off the park and sold years ago if it were any other big team.

We need to be more ruthless, no more buying high priced potentially good players. For that price we should be aiming players that have been established instead of buying hopefulls.
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Think him Maguire. Jones. And countless others we have tried to get rid. But Woodward when in charge offered silly wages to average players and its costing when we try and let go. This club at boardroom level is an utter shambles
 
If someone can sell Martial for 30m, that person deserves a statue
NewGlory said:
You mean - letting go. Nobody wants our players, nobody is buying even healthy ones, let alone Martial who cannot play 90 minutes without getting injured for the next 3 months
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we're hanging on players for too long, until every man, woman and their dog know said player is indeed shit.
We sold Lukaku for an almost club's record fee.
 
fallengt said:
we're hanging on players for too long, until every man, woman and their dog know said player is indeed shit.
We sold Lukaku for an almost club's record fee.
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Agree 100%

Also, ironically, we claimed Lukaku wasn't good enough for us, and yet - never replaced him with anybody better! He actually, very likely was the last functioning striker we had. Cavani was unable to play a full game, Ronaldo was old and toxic, Martial is always injured, and Ighalo+Weghorst were not good enough for any EPL team, let alone for us. I was definitely not a fan of Lukaku's, but FFS - maybe we sold him too soon :)
 
Martial has always been a player I've liked but his fitness record has made him too unreliable now. If the Saudi offer does exist, we'd be wise to cash in and use the proceeds to fund a loan or cheap rotation option for Hojlund. We can't rely upon a 20 year old to carry our goalscoring burden on his own and Rashford shouldn't be playing centrally anymore unless it's a last resort.
 
NewGlory said:
Agree 100%

Also, ironically, we claimed Lukaku wasn't good enough for us, and yet - never replaced him with anybody better! He actually, very likely was the last functioning striker we had. Cavani was unable to play a full game, Ronaldo was old and toxic, Martial is always injured, and Ighalo+Weghorst were not good enough for any EPL team, let alone for us. I was definitely not a fan of Lukaku's, but FFS - maybe we sold him too soon :)
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Lukaku was one of the few instances where we got it right. We got a good fee for him, and I think we got a percentage of the sell-on from his subsequent move to Chelsea too. Failing to sell him at that time only would've seen his value depreciate and fans grow more frustrated with him as we've seen with countless others.

He wasn't the last functioning striker either. Martial was really good for us in the 19/20 season and got 17 league goals. We had a good thing going the following season with Cavani too, as we had options with him, Martial and the other guy. It was only once we brought Ronaldo back when things started to really go pear-shaped. Hojlund will hopefully set us back on the right path but we need another one to support him.
 
We really should have sold this guy a few transfer windows ago. He is not United standard, if we want to fight for the title.
Bye bye, 20 mio pounds would be ok. Imagine all the time our physics would have available after Martial and Jones would be gone. He just doesn't have the mentality. Buy someone instead of Martial..
 
Considering Greenwood is leaving, we should sell Martial and go for someone who can help Højlund with the burden of leading our line. Martial when fit can contribute, but the thing is, he is never fit.
 
I really hate saying this but I'd love to see him in a team with this direct one two passing style.
 
Danish Wizard said:
We really should have sold this guy a few transfer windows ago. He is not United standard, if we want to fight for the title.
Bye bye, 20 mio pounds would be ok. Imagine all the time our physics would have available after Martial and Jones would be gone. He just doesn't have the mentality. Buy someone instead of Martial..
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Problem is that he has always been massively overpaid so even in previous windows we could not have sold him. His one truly good season was the 2019/20 season under Ole but that ended in the summer of COVID when a lot of clubs were losing money hand over fist and we honestly thought that the Martial/Rashford partnership was the key to winning a title. One year later we knew it was a false dawn but nobody was going to touch a player earning 250K a week to sit in the treatment room and so we have had 3 years of almost no production because he is unsellable. If he sets the PL goalscoring record this season we still need to avoid the mistake of extending his deal.
 
M16Red said:
I really hate saying this but I'd love to see him in a team with this direct one two passing style.
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As we know you can’t play him for more than about 20 minutes at a time or you risk him breaking down again and being out for 3 months
 
RuudTom83 said:
Problem always leads back to the owners.

EtH would probably agree in private that Martial isn’t good enough, but if he leaves would the owners replace him?

They would probably reply saying Hojlund is your CF get on with it.

So given that choice it’s better to keep Martial just to have the backup.
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This is the problem ETH has. So many players he'd love to bin off but he can't do it because he knows they won't be replaced. So he's stuck with the dross.
 
We can only start him when it looks like Hojlund will be fit enough to make his debut, otherwise he will get hurt again and we won't even be able to pretend that we have another forward available on the bench.
 
would have to be a pretty hefty offer to get enough to sell, not much else to bring in at this point. Unfortunately i think you just have to suck it up and know he will only play half the season, at best. When he is on he can be a good player up top, but just know that will be about half of his games. Leeches have brought united to this level.
 
FerociousCorgis said:
would have to be a pretty hefty offer to get enough to sell, not much else to bring in at this point. Unfortunately i think you just have to suck it up and know he will only play half the season, at best. When he is on he can be a good player up top, but just know that will be about half of his games. Leeches have brought united to this level.
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He isn’t going to play half the games last season he played about 1100 mins in total, when we had lots of games. He hasn’t played much more than that in forever.
 
hobbers said:
Martial can be replaced by literally any academy player.

He’s not going to be fit at any point, no point paying his wages if there’s any alternative. And we’re in the CL now so those wages are probably back to £13m a season
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No he can't.
 
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