Jose Mourinho had two reasons for wanting Martial sold at Man Utd

Jose Mourinho repeatedly tried to talk Manchester United into offloading Anthony Martial during his time at the club for two key reasons, a new report has claimed.

The 23-year-old forward rarely saw eye-to-eye with the former United manager and was often left on the sidelines as the club struggled to live up to their first season’s high standards under the Portuguese coach.

Mourinho’s departure last December brought about an immediate upturn in Martial’s fortunes and the France star was rewarded with a new five-year deal back in January as a reward for his improvements under the Portuguese’s successor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

And Martial has continued to play a regular role under Solskjaer since, with the player netting twice already this season.

However, it was no secret that Mourinho tried to sell Martial during his time at Old Trafford, with only the intervention of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward preventing the player’s departure.

And according to The Times, Mourinho had two major reasons for wanting to let Martial move on.

Firstly, he felt he was “mentally weak” for Premier League football, which made it difficult for him to come back from minor setbacks.

Then, the Portuguese was angered by Martial’s perceived sulking during matches, with the report suggesting Mourinho wanted to sell the former Monaco youngster off and replace him with the more workmanlike Ivan Perisic.

Anthony Martial Manchester United

However, Mourinho’s sacking at the club changed the course of Martial’s future, with the player underlining his importance to Solskjaer with goals in the recent matches against Chelsea and Wolves.

While, Martial was unable to add to his tally, the player was struggling with a calf injury, with Solskjaer addressing fitness concerns after the game.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Solskjaer said about Martial and Luke Shaw’s injuries said after the match. “Hopefully they won’t be too bad and maybe we can have them training during the week.”

 

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