Good. We'd been agreeing too much. You could only stumble into being right for so long. The odds were against you.
First of all, my best friend’s kid was born 5 months premature. I have a cousin who was born 2 weeks after due date. This isnt a bi annual cleaning at your dentist. Secondly, I said family emergency because that’s the type of leave that would be granted or family sick and that’s something most of us could relate to. I would think as a grown up with a family, you would be able to relate.
Yeah, family emergencies happen. You notify the club, the club briefs the journalists, the whole thing is a non-story. Happens all the time
Or... distressed because of said emergency, you don’t call. Your manager briefs the press against you saying you are unprofessional. There’s no way to look at this as a reasonable person and think Martial is more wrong than Mourinho and the club. Best case scenario according to Mourinho would have been Martial missing the birth of his child for a couple preseason matches. A close second would be attending the birth and then completing a return cross the pond to play one game which would have meant 4 really long flights in a short space of time.
It goes beyond just this incident. Siri is a pattern of unprofessional behavior from the club, that is JM , and this is just bringing that out.
Simon Stone,as reliable a football reporter from the Beeb, has reported that Martial will not be sold this window, despite Mourinho pushing hard for him to go. That is very good news, in the sense that Woodward is sticking to his guns and not caving on this to Mourinho. That only confirms the disconnect that is suspected to be between both men at this time. And I'm starting to think that while Woodward will not do anything yet (in terms of Mourinho's job), he will be working on possible contingencies for if/when needs to be replaced. Could be difficult for Martial, but if he can hold on (just one more year tops)...
While I agree that not selling Martial is the right move, what's the long-term plan here? Is Woodward thinking he's going to get back into Mou's good graces? Unlikely. Or (more realistic) is Woodward basically acknowledging that Mou's opinion isn't relevant long-term, i.e. because he's not going to be here. If it's the latter, and it sure looks like it is to me, then they should have just fired his after last year. If you've decided the guy isn't the right pick long-term why let him do any more damage? Just to make his firing more easily defensible?
I think Woodward would've sent Martial packing if he was sold on Jose but that's clearly not the case. He probably don't want to commit to Jose's plan and have some of most promising assets go down with the ship. Smart move.
Woodward's "discontent" with Mourinho is obviously pretty recent and he's obviously caught between a rock and a hard place at this time. There's no plan in place as far as a replacement is concerned (and that obviously matters when you're thinking about letting someone go). As mentioned, Woodward is going to let Mourinho start the season, but surely he must be thinking that it could be getting close to the end, if things keep going the present course. You'd have to be blind and an idiot not to see that his behavior on tour is eerily similar to summer 2015 with Chelsea. And we all know where it led to: surely Woodward is aware as well. And Carrick and/or McKenna are probably not ready to take over by themselves. He's got little choice now, but surely Woodward is going to be looking for alternatives. In the meantime, he'll probably be expecting things not to get too bad, too fast. With how things are ATM ie the team playing very poorly, plus us probably not closer to challenging this year, this should be it for Mourinho one way or another this season. Also, this whole summer has been a pretty clear message to Mourinho from Woodward: he can whine, complain and act like a child all he wants, but Woodward is the one in charge, when it's all said and done. So Mourinho can shape up or if he can't or won't as suspected, then he can get his resume ready.
A - Why should we do that, especially when... B - They won't meet our valuation of him and are hoping they can get him on the cheap.
i think the explanation is much more pragmatic: united hasn't found a team willing to bid 60 mil+, yet. regardless of his current predicament, it would be simply bad business to sell low.
Didn't even catch it yesterday while watching the game, but noticed today that when Martial came off, he and Mourinho did not shake hands. They didn't even look at one another. This is not good at all. While it might be a risk for us (if Sanchez/Rashford pick up an injury), but if the club are not going to fire Mourinho now, they should at least consider sending Martial on loan (a half season one for starters). Because it's clear that the relationship is non existent and Martial is miserable and does not care one bit anymore. We'd miss him, but truthfully this version of Martial is of no use to us. Until Mourinho leaves, he's going to keep stalling and even regress IMO. For his sake (and ours long term), we should send him away to a club where he can be happy and find his game again. At least he'd come back hopefully a rejuvenated player, ready to give us his best again. I'm starting to be worried for him at this point, and the fact that he and Mourinho are at loggerheads does not help matters one bit. Some windows are closed now, but there is still 10 days to make something happen. I'd prefer it if he stayed, but thinking big picture, it might be better for him to go. If only for a little while at least.
Martial may be a striker down the line, but it's pretty clear to me that where he's been the most impressive to me is wide left. Being able to dribble well and find teammates in the box the way he does, especially in tight spaces, is one of the biggest attribute for a wide player and Martial is good at it. He's useless from the right but he excels on the left. He may end up being a 9 but we still have to see him really excel there, as he has on the right. But what he offers now from the left, plus what he can potentially offer elsewhere at CF, is enough to want to keep him. It'd be a daft move to sell him, not before we can see what another manager can get out of him. Van Gaal, in his first season away from French football, when he was still a pup, got plenty out of him. The talent and class is undeniable...
If we did not have a gaping size hole wide right, that might be something to mull over,perhaps... But I'm not going to willingly create another potential problem position for us, just because. We obviously disagree on Martial's value and quality on the left: for me, when he's on, he's up there with the best. He's excellent. I'd much rather spend the money we have on one of those up and coming talents like Bailey, Lozano or Guedes and stick them wide right and eliminate a long standing issue, once and for all.
I've come to realize that it doesn't matter who we sign under Jose. Whoever it is will regress quickly like everyone has under him. It's better that we rot with the current group that setback any future players.
This. It’s tiring reading so many people say Martial isn’t cut out for Utd as our LW as if he’s to blame for his performances post Alexis. It was stupefying to read last season in particular. I can not comprehend it as a genuine opinion someone holds, as opposed to severe confirmation bias. The dressing room is increasingly lost, and it started with Martial. I can’t think of many more obvious cases of a very good player just not wanting to play for a Utd manager anymore.
The mysterious case of Anthony Martial. www.mufclatest.com/the-mysterious-case-of-anthony-martial/ No real mystery tbh once you look at Martial's United career and break it down. The story and the root of the problem is pretty clear IMO.
You keep saying that and tbh perhaps you are correct and Martial's trajectory will end up exactly as Thierry Henry after all. Nevertheless, there still hasn't been any tangible proof that it is the case and Martial will end up as a superior CF. Especially when as previously mentioned, that when he's on his game, Martial has proved to be a terrific left side forward. We definitely have seen far more of that, than him being a top of the line CF. 11 goals and 10 assists last season thru February (with probably just half of the games as a starter) is an excellent return for a LWF, any way you cut it. Had he played as a starter from the start of the season or didn't have his momentum stopped dead in it's tracks after Sanchez's arrival, there's no telling what kind of production we would have gotten from him, playing from the left...
This. I don't see Martial as ever being a lone 9, especially in the traditional sense. Maybe in a more fluid 4-3-3 where the front 3 interchanges. He doesn't do enough of the things needed from a lone striker to be successful and he best when he gets the ball with space in front of him to run at goal.