The opportunity for Manchester United to sell Anthony Martial and Jadon Sancho has arrived.
“Anthony and Sancho have received offers from clubs in the Saudi Arabian Professional League, and United are trying to recoup some of the £105 million ($264.5 billion) they spent on them,” the British Evening Standard reported on Feb. 22. United want around £50 million ($85 million) each for Anthony and Sancho.”
Anthony was an ambitious signing for United. Eric ten Haag, who was appointed ahead of last season, was keen to sign his former pupil. “Manchester United have reached a full agreement with Ajax to sign Brazilian star Anthony on a permanent deal for a total fee of €100 million,” said European transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano at the time.
In the early stages of the transfer, he lived up to expectations. Anthony scored his debut goal against Arsenal on his debut. He then rattled the net against Manchester City and Everton, scoring in three consecutive games.
However, he hasn’t been the same since. Injuries aside, Anthony continued to be Ten Haag’s man of choice, but opponents were beginning to read his patterns: pointless dribbling, the same shot every time, etc.
This season saw a further decline in form. In 21 games across all competitions, Anthony has 0 goals and 0 assists. United’s attack is losing its sharpness as their €100 million investment fails to materialize. This has been the case throughout 2023. In total, Anthony played 33 PL games in 2023, scoring just one goal. He scored against Nottingham Forest in April 2023.
If he doesn’t improve, United will have no choice but to put him on the sale list. “Anthony was told by Van Gaal last week that he ‘needs to do better’ and faces an uncertain future,” according to the Evening Standard.
Sancho is also one of the resources that United would like to sell. Sancho is also a big-money signing for United. United paid £76.5 million for him in the summer of 2021. However, Sancho struggled to settle in early on.
He even fell out with manager Van Gaal. In September of last year, Sancho was left off the roster for a game against Arsenal. After the game, Van Gaal explained why Sancho was left out, saying, “Sancho was not called up based on his performance in training. At United, you have to reach the highest level every day. That’s why he was not selected for this game.”
However, Sancho quickly refuted this with an official statement. Taking to Personal X (formerly Twitter), Sancho wrote: “Please don’t believe everything you see. I will not allow people to say things that are not completely true, I believe I trained very well this week, I believe there are other reasons why I am not on this roster,” he said in a strongly worded response.
Ten Haag then went on to rule Sancho out completely. He banned Sancho from the first team training ground. The situation didn’t improve, and the relationship didn’t recover until the winter transfer window. Sancho ended up joining Dortmund on loan, temporarily parting ways with United. However, he will return to the club at the end of this season, so United will be looking to sell him in the upcoming summer transfer window.