Inter Milan were reportedly about to propose a £50million offer for the Frenchman, Anthony Martial viewing him as a good replacement for Chelsea-bound Romelu Lukaku.
That Inter viewed the infuriatingly inconsistent Martial on an equal footing to the prolific Lukaku will have raised a few eyebrows among United fans but it’s a moot point. Martial won’t be sold.
It’s a colossal vote of confidence in a forward who has blown hot and cold throughout his six years at Old Trafford and who was accused by Paul Scholes of ‘almost conning’ United and worried Roy Keane ‘by not looking like he loves the game.’
You get the impression that United are far from convinced too, given they’ve signed a player in Martial’s position in four of the six summer windows plus a January one since he joined from Monaco.
But more by accident than design, the 25-year-old will not only be United’s No 9 on the squad list this season but looks set to feature heavily. In the opening few weeks, at least.
Edinson Cavani, the 34-year-old who supplanted the injured Martial as United’s first-choice centre forward towards the end of last season, has been granted extra leave following the Copa America.
And Marcus Rashford will be sidelined until October after undergoing surgery to fix a long-standing shoulder injury.
So Martial has a good chance of being picked for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as either United’s centre forward or left-sided forward well into the autumn.
Just back from the ruptured knee ligament injury that curtailed his 2020-21 campaign and ended his Euro 2020 chances, Martial should be desperate to silence a few doubters.
But he must be in the last chance saloon at United. Having responded brilliantly to Solskjaer making him first choice centre forward in 2019-20 by scoring 23 times, Martial should have kicked on.