Sport
EXCELLENT MARTIAL LOOKS TO BE A SUCCESSFUL PANIC BUY
Given the timing of the transfer and the fee involved for such a young and unproven player, it is difficult to consider Manchester United’s deadline-day purchase of 19-year-old striker Anthony Martial as anything other than a panic buy. United may have insisted that they had been tracking the Frenchman for a long time, but the decision to part with an initial £36 million – and the price could rise to £58.8 million if various add-ons take effect – in exchange for a player who had completed 90 Ligue 1 minutes for Monaco on just five occasions certainly seemed like one of desperation.
Martial has made a fantastic start to his career with the Red Devils, netting three goals in just two Premier League appearances. His brace against Southampton on Sunday was evidence of his terrific ability in front of goal, with both strikes converted in a composed and clinical manner.
With Wayne Rooney continuing to misfire – the 29-year-old has not scored a Premier League goal since April and has only four to his name in the whole of 2015 – Martial already looks to have become a vital component in this United side. His speed and vertical running in behind the opposition backline has added verve to Louis van Gaal’s outfit; with a lack of pace and directness in forward areas, United often looked ponderous and pedestrian before the acquisition of Martial, who showed intelligence with his movement at St Marys at the weekend.
Indeed, there is a maturity to Martial’s game that belies his tender years. He made a number of unselfish runs against Southampton, creating space for the likes of Rooney, Memphis Depay and Juan Mata. The all-round nature of his performances to date will have delighted Van Gaal and the club’s fans, many of whom had likely never heard of the former Lyon man before United made him the world’s most expensive teenager at the start of the month.
Nevertheless, it remains premature to assume that Martial will go on to become United’s leading striker for years to come. The last player to score in his first two Premier League outings for the 20-time English champions was Federico Macheda, the Italian forward who currently plies his trade in the Championship with Cardiff City after loan spells at Birmingham City and Doncaster Rovers in recent years; while the early signs suggest that Martial has far more to his game than Macheda, 19 is still too young an age to definitive claim that the twice-capped France international is a top-class player in the making.
Martial may go on to prove himself worth every penny and more, but that does not change the fact that his purchase was driven by anxiety on the final day of the transfer window when United felt they had to make a statement of intent and add a centre-forward to a squad that had lost Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez and Radamel Falcao in the weeks previous.
The man dubbed the ‘new Thierry Henry’ was almost certainly a panic buy. His displays so far, though, suggest that he could be a very successful one indeed.
