Anthony Martial may be spending the rest of the season at Manchester United against his wishes after the club blocked a potential loan move for the Frenchman to Sevilla.
Anthony Martial told Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick earlier in the week that he wanted to leave Old Trafford and the manager gave his okay to the board to find a way out for the 26-year-old. Martial has not had many suitors but preferred to move to LaLiga with Sevilla among the few clubs who have inquired about his availability in January.
Sevilla went ahead to table a loan move with no option to buy. The Andalusian club also inserted a clause that would see them pay half of the striker’s wages in the duration of the loan but Manchester United have thrown the proposal out, leaving Martial in limbo.
Reports from Spain claim that Sevilla’s argument for including that clause is that Martial’s price could go up if he performs well in LaLiga. The striker is currently valued between €32-€35 million and his current contract at Old Trafford runs till 2024. While Sevilla’s argument makes sense from a logical standpoint, Manchester United has no interest in closing the deal, seeking instead to totally take off Martial’s wages from their books.
Martial earns between £300,000 and £350,000 a week at Manchester United and Sevilla offers to only cover half of this fee in their loan, which sums up to between £150,000 and £200,000. United is only interested in selling Martial outright or in loan deals that cover his full wages, and are also open to keeping Martial until his contract runs out in 2024.
Sevilla may keep pursuing a deal for the striker as they will be losing key striker Youssef En-Nesyri in January when Morocco travel to Cameroon to fight for the African Cup of Nations title.
Rangnick says Martial’s transfer wishes are ‘understandable’
The Frenchman was signed by Louis Van Gaal in 2015 for £36 million to become the world’s most expensive teenager at the time. Wayne Rooney, United’s all-time leading goalscorer was nearing the end of his time at Old Trafford at the time and Martial’s performances gave fans hope for the future following Rooney’s departure.
Louis Van Gaal left and Martial didn’t find favour under Jose Mourinho, being relegated to a squad player as Marcus Rashford broke through to stake a solid claim for the starting striker role. He saw a little resurgence in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first season at the club, scoring 17 Premier League Goals, and later going back to being a squad player and even being frozen out of the squad at times.
Under Rangnick, Martial seems to have no hope of getting regular minutes and has now considered his time at United to be over.
Rangnick says that the 26-year-old’s feelings are understandable.
“He explained to me he’s been at Manchester United now for the last seven years and he feels it’s the right time for a change, to go somewhere else,’ the German manager said.
“I think in a way this is understandable, I could follow his thoughts, but on the other hand, it’s also important to see the situation of the club.
“We have Covid times, we have three competitions in which we still have high ambitions and we want to be as successful as we can be.
“I told him ‘listen, as long as there is no club showing interest in him [he will stay]’ and it should not only be in the interest of the player it should also be in the interest of the club.”
“So far, as far as I know, there has been no offer from any other club and as long as this is the case he will stay.”
