Martial law rules for Louis van Gaal... Monaco teen could cost Manchester United £58m but Phil Neville says he'll be worth it
* Manchester United set to sign 19-year-old Monaco striker Anthony Martial
* The deal is worth £36million but could rise to £58m with bonuses
* Martial will become the most expensive teenager in football history
* Louis van Gaal had the teenager watched a number of times last season
Just before 1.30pm on Monday lunchtime, a black limousine swept through the gates of Manchester United’s Carrington training base carrying the young man who could end up the most expensive teenager in the history of world football.
Anthony Martial had been granted special permission by the French Football Federation to break off from preparations for their international with Portugal and travel from Clairefontaine to England to conclude a stunning £36million transfer that could ultimately be worth up to £58m for his club Monaco.
Louis van Gaal was there to greet Martial before leaving to spend the international break at his holiday home on the Algarve, welcoming a 19-year-old player that some United fans had never heard of before news of the deal began to leak out on Sunday night.
Monaco striker Martial is set to complete his transfer to Manchester United before the window shuts
After a summer in which their club have been linked with just about every big name in world football, here they were going under the radar to sign a relative unknown on the eve of the transfer deadline.
However, it is understood that Van Gaal has been an admirer of Martial for some time and was encouraged to step up his interest after Monaco were knocked out of the Champions League by Valencia last week, sensing a possible shift in the French club’s stance that the player was not for sale. In spite of the astronomical fee, Valencia assistant manager and former United defender Phil Neville learned from those two ties just what an exciting prospect his old club have acquired.
‘He was unplayable at times,’ Neville told Sportsmail on Monday. ‘He has strength, pace, everything you could look for. He kept drifting out to the left and causing us problems. He’s a proper centre-forward. Every time he got the ball your heart was in your mouth. He was really good in both games, especially at the Mestalla.
‘He’s a proper signing and I think he’s a better bet than spending the same on Edinson Cavani or someone similar.’
Martial’s conversion from winger to striker, bringing his pace and power to a more central role, has inevitably earned comparisons with another French forward, Thierry Henry. He was born and raised in the southern Paris suburb of Massy, a few miles away from where Henry was brought up, and played for the same junior club CO Les Ulis.
United fans could be forgiven for a touch of scepticism at this point. Travel an equally short distance in the other direction from Massy and you can reach Sevres, birthplace of David Bellion, who never came to terms with being dubbed ‘the new Henry’ after moving to Old Trafford from Sunderland in 2003.
Martial appears to be an altogether different prospect, however, quickly emerging as one of the brightest young talents in the game since making his senior debut for Lyon less than three years ago.
A quick, strong player with great acceleration, he can operate on either flank or through the middle, and possesses a fearsome left foot which he is not afraid to use from distance.
Last season, he was the leading scorer among players under 20 in Europe’s top five leagues, scoring nine goals in Ligue 1 for Monaco.
He also played a key role in knocking Arsenal out of the Champions League following a shock 3-1 win at the Emirates in February. Tottenham and Chelsea have since joined the Gunners in maintaining a keen interest in his progress.
Last week, Martial was called into France’s senior squad for the first time by Didier Deschamps before his promotion was briefly interrupted by United’s shock bid.
‘He’s got a good combination of pace and power,’ says Deschamps. ‘He’s a young player obviously, but he’s got an interesting profile in an area where it’s not easy to find players with both strength and speed.
‘He plays centrally, but often drifts into wide positions, more on the left than the right.’
France’s Under 21 coach Pierre Mankowski has had a major influence on Martial’s career and was among the first to draw comparisons with Henry.
The player’s elder brother Johan, a defender for Brest, does so too but for less flattering reasons. He says: ‘They used to call him Thierry Henry when he was a kid. He has the legs of Henry as a footballer, but he also has a strange shaped head!’
Martial joined Lyon at the age of 14, following in the footsteps of Karim Benzema and Loic Remy.
After scoring 32 goals in 21 games for the youth team, he was given his senior debut in December 2012 despite a laissez-faire attitude to training.
His former Lyon teammate Zakarie Labadie noted: ‘There would never be any point in waking him early for training, he would wake up two minutes before.’
Martial countered: ‘I’ve always been like this. If I didn’t really turn up in training, I wouldn’t force myself to.’
Martial made only four appearances for Lyon before Monaco boss Claudio Ranieri signed him for £3.6m in 2013. In fact, the transfer saved Lyon from bankruptcy as the club had to sell a player by the end of June and Bafetimbi Gomis, now at Swansea, had refused to move on.
Ironically, given the money United have just paid for Martial, he was said to have felt uncomfortable with the price tag at first.
In his two years at the club, Martial played alongside two former United strikers in Radamel Falcao and Dimitar Berbatov.
After waiting five months for his debut, the youngster scored two goals in 15 games in his first season on the Cote d’Azur. When new coach Leonardo Jardim handed him a more central and increasingly influential role last season, Martial rewarded his faith by scoring eight goals in the final 12 games of the campaign, including a stunning volley against St Etienne to help Monaco finish third.
Their early exit from the Champions League at the Stade Louis II last Tuesday was the trigger for United to make their move; one that reached a swift and stunning conclusion by Sunday night.
If anyone did not know who Anthony Martial was before then, they do now.
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