Who is Anthony Martial and is he worth the cash?

Yes @ anonimous. fully agree with you on your points. Unless Martial becomes a Marsian and explodes on the field they are not looking like a team that could be top 3.

Agree with all of that anon

I agree with what you are saying. I was just making the point I think a lot of people were shocked by the signing more to do with the fact that United needed another readymade striker. You’re right, they let Van Persie, Falcao and Hernandez go but Van Persie was way past his prime and was already on the outer last season, Falcao was a disaster and Hernandez, while solid off the bench has never really proved himself as a bona-fide striker. I agree United develop their players but surely you agree they needed another world class striker this season, especially considering Rooney prefers to play the number 10 (although I don’t think this is his best position). I can't see United being any chance of winning the title this season, which should never be the case with a United team.

@anonimous: If they needed a ready made striker they could have kepts van persie, falcao or hernandez. Why did they not keep those players? Martial is not ready made. I can guarantee you that. Played 50 L1 games, 4 of these were full time. He might do well in the next couple of years but if you knew anything about Van Gaal and Man U you would understand what they really invest in and their capacity to develop and value add on talent in the long term. That is what separates them from Chelsea, man city and most the other clubs perhaps except Southampton and Arsenal. After last year s wave of signings they realized they drifted from their strategy and are correcting it (granted, at a premium) And if Martial bombs and they loan him and sell him for €30m after 4 or 5 years the financial maths apply the same. Pull your calculator out.

Or conversely he never settles into the premier league, goes out on loan in 2 years and then is sold for a fraction of the price. I’m not saying this is going to happen, but you can’t make your assumption without comparing it to the contrary. If he turns out to be a world class striker, great. However, I think a lot of the conjecture around the signing is more to do with the fact that United needed a readymade striker now who could complement Rooney. Is Martial going to provide this, possibly, but I don’t think so. Well not in the short term at least.

You make some good points tf. I daresay that 36m for a teenager is an expensive wank until you realise it's Man Utd shelling the money - a club that is second to Real Madrid in terms of global wealth. If Liverpool or Spurs were to make this purchase, than this deal would be even more critiqued. Different strokes for different folks. The one risk for United though is the notion that all this heavy-handed splurging does not have a net result in terms of trophies. In the current English environment where bona fide quality like Xherdan Shaqiri will go to Stoke City, it's fair to say the overall quality of players in English football is improving, and therefore the teams at the bottom half will push the top teams more regularly. That's on a domestic front, while on the European front, United is still short of the Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern and Chelsea quality. While the money is good, failure to get results may mean the money is not spent so freely as is now.

JP, the deal is €50m euros + 3 clauses of €10m each. 2 of them being linked to Martial getting 10 caps in the French nat squad and if he is in the top 20 of the "ballon d'or" ranking (not sure of the timeframe). Simple business maths will tell us that with the inflationary prices going on at present which are due to the uk tv right deals, in a year or 2, €50m euro will only get you an average striker and Man U does not deal with average (falcao, di maria were aces nd they ve let them go) Also, this club has invested in him for the long run as MU always does, lets say an 8 year plan (keep in mind he will be seasonned campaigner of 27 yo by then), Martial will have cost them "only" €5m to €7m per season and that's if they resell him for nil (eg he implodes or see out his contract). If they resell him for half his purchase value in 8 years, then Martial will not be a bad deal (that s if he is average but clubs always look for a 6 foot striker even average). If he scores 15-20 goals a season, then his value will increase and Man U is in front. That s a great long term vision from Man U either way. Van Gaal is a coach who has developped some of the best young players in the last 10 years (xavi , iniesta at Barca and Mueller at Bayern i believe) so once he puts his hands on a rough diamond he is going to use the machine that is man u to turn it into something that has value.

Don't worry. We have 3 world class goalkeepers. Just for the lolz.

Pedro stated the delay gave Chelsea the window. My point is that United let multiple attackers leave. They recruited just 1. Madness.

interesting points

Depay plays on the left regardless. I don’t know too much about Martial (well nothing actually) but if can play CF then Rooney will play at 10, as its his preferred position (although I think Rooney is a much better striker then 10). Whether Martial can come in and take on the CF role is another question though, and frankly, I think would be asking way too much.

Nicholas, re Lacazette, the player himself wasn't so keen on moving to a club where he wouldnt be a certain starter one year from the euro that will be played in France. PSG were interested if Ibra were to leave and go back to Milan but as often you need the first domino to drop to have a domino effect. Arsenal and a few others were also interested I think but they just knew Lacazette wasn't really. I reckon Lacazette made the right choice staying at Lyon as they are playing the Cl this year, he's in the right club to earn a spot with the NT for euro 2016 plus he got a nice pay rise and he is now worth more after adding a couple of years to his 3 years contract. I think it was a very smart move and not many clubs in Europe could have grabbed him from Lyon. There was no point for him being the sub of the sub at Real, Bayern, Man U or Barca. Martial knew he was an outside chance for euro 2016 so moving to Man U makes more sense,(in a way). Unless he scores 25 goals for them he won't be picked by deschamps but I guess he knew that already.

On the contrary Fuss, Torres had just come back from another Knee injury when Chelsea bought him. For a year or two before Chelsea bought him, Torres was constantly in and out of the Liverpool squad due to said knee injury. After the 2010 World Cup - where Spain used Torres even though he was injured thus injuring him further - a lot of people saw that his pace and sharpness (which both made him so lethal) had disappeared. I have no idea what Abramovich was thinking when he decided that Torres was worth 50million pounds and that price tag is effectively what killed him as the pressure to perform with that price was too much for a crocked Torres to handle.

"Torres had both fallen from their heights at their peak" Really? As far as I recall, Torres was at the peak of his scoring with Liverpool when he was poached by Chelsea. In fact his transfer to Chelsea (reported to be £50 million) set a new record for a transfer in EPL & made him the 6th most expensive footballer in history.

Any self respecting Chelsea fan knew two things about the Shevchenko and Torres deals 1) They were not the same players they were when they were great (Shevchenko and Torres had both fallen from their heights at their peak) 2) The money paid for both players was over the odds I will admit they were stupid deals, I admitted that when they occured and they had not kicked a ball yet for Chelsea, but Abramovich wanted them and he is the owner of the club so its up to him to do what he wants. However paying 36mill on Martial is a greater risk than spending that money on someone who has proved in their career that they can score goals. It may not work out getting a proven goal scorer, but there is a lower amount of risk and its worth a punt especially with the money United spent. "but the fact he has to be proven is a bit silly" - I would agree with you if the circumstances I stated in the original post did not occur. I am not saying he is a bad player or that he will not become a great player, I'm saying that the money spent on Martial with the issues that United had is ridiculous especially considering they had a player at Martials level (Wilson) go out on loan.

Come on mate use your noggin! LVG has in his mind what he wants in a player, I think versatility is the name of his game. That's what he does, though whether or not that's a good plan, I have no answer. That's why Chicarito's gone. RVP's gone for the reasons you stated. I don't know about the Pedro thing, but Valdes and de Gea telling him off probably was a huge factor in his not coming. And the thing about spending 36m on an unproven striker is a bit of nonsense (though the thought has its merits). Shevchenko and Torres were "proven strikers" (does that mean they can kick the ball in the goal, or that they had a good supporting cast of either or both creative players and a adaptive tactics?) when they joined Chelsea, and yet they didnt do to well. Not saying that Martial will definitely succeed, but the fact he has to be proven is a bit silly. Funny though, that a few big clubs were after strikers and nobody went for Lacazette who scored a billion goals (if that means he's any good) last year, and probably could have been picked up cheaper than Martial

Pedro didn't want to go, his mates David de Gea and Victor Valdes told him "no va" It's not really mad they released any of those players above (except for Januzaj), they're not very good or haven't played well, although Man Utd are a bit mad letting so many forwards go

Let's break this down. United are struggling for goals at the moment. So what do they do? - Let Chicarito leave, a proven poacher/goal scorer. - Let RVP leave, who is a proven goal scorer albeit on the wrong side of 30 and on huge wages - Let Januzaj go on loan - Let Wilson go on loan - Were reluctant to pay what Barcelona demanded for Pedro (which was 2 million more than what United were offering) - Spent 36million pounds (which can rise to 56) on an unproven striker/winger. That is more than Costa, Aguero and what Liverpool paid for Suarez on a player who may potentially be good. To think they let WIlson go on loan when he is on the same level as Martial, yet paid over the odds to capture him. United needed a ready, proven goal scorer - not a player who may be good in the future. Then we have the De Gea saga where they ended up not transferring a keeper who does not want to be there and getting a ready made replacement in Navas who is miles better than Romero. Instead the fans are rejoicing that they stood up to Madrid. Good luck rejoicing when De Gea leaves for free as his contract ends at the end of the year. So not only will United lose out on possibly 30million in funds, they wont have a decent keeper to replace De Gea and they will have to go with Romero all season who is dodgy at best. It is mind boggling to see how stupid they have been in the last couple of days. Honestly believing LVG has lost the plot. I will believe it entirely if he plays Fellaini as a CF again. But as a Chelsea fan, I cant complain ;)

Mad that they didn't sign the cheaper and proven Pedro. Mad they released/sold/loaned RVP, Hernandez, Juanejaz, Falcao and recruited Martial Mad mad mad

Is there a possible way that they might play Depay out on the left, Martial in 10 and rooney centre forward or play rooney 10 and martial centre forward. But 36million pounds for a suspected unproven player, Wayne Rooney had to go up to Morgan Schneiderlin and ask him who the heck martial was. I'm not sa ying that if Rooney doesn't know the player you are buying then they shouldn't buy him. But Martial really needs to step up if he'd to fulfil his price tag.