Martial exit?

Completely forgot he was still our player, all that money wasted on wages since he last played in December. But then you think that we have an £80m winger out on loan and a £30m CM out on loan every season who no one wants, hopefully this a summer we act like a proper football club for once.
 
One last dance. FA cup final winning goal - we will be there
 
Our post Fergie testimonial/almost testimonial squad makes quite a reading. The "preserving the value" Era ushered in by Woodie and co was truly something.

De Gea (12 seasons, at least 5 seasons post his sell by date. Last contract on ridiculous wages that most 20 goals/season strikers weren't getting back then)

Eric Bailly (7 seasons, 6 of them were garbage. Mind still boggles why he was given the last contract extension)
Phil Jones (12 season, 8 were garbage/on the IR. Even a more ridiculous last contract extension than one given to Bailly)
Lindelof (7 seasons, all range from bad to mediocre)
Marcus Rojo (7 seasons. Maybe 10 games in those 7 seasons were good. Iirc, the last couple of seasons we paid him to play for other clubs).
Shaw (10 seasons, may be 3 good seasons in those 10. Shawberto, apparently. Should have been sold with one year left on his deal, instead he got a bumper extension)

The McTominator (7 seasons. Jose's parting gift to us. Watch him get another extension)
Jesse Lingard (7 senior seasons. West Ham were stupid enough to want to pay for him with a year left, but we said no, we want some more. Then he left on a free).

Martial (9 seasons. Another one who should have been let go or sold with one year left but instead we gave him a bumper new contract; after that he played like 10 games for the club and was bothered in 2)

Zlatan got a contract extension at the tender age of 92 after he tore his ACL. Rashford got a Mbappe contract. Bruno was given a contract extension when there was no need to give him one and we could have easily waited till a new manager was in place. Mata's numerous contract extensions.Rooney and Nani contract extensions post Sir Alex. One season we paid Nani to play for Sporting. Pogba was kind and saved us by not signing a contract extension. I am sure there are a few others that I am missing.The list is endless.
 
I genuinely thought he was going to be the new Henry. Seemed to have it all.

He's been a complete waste of a squad place for the last 3 seasons. Even if we swapped him for a championship level striker it'd be an improvement. It feels like the guy only plays 3 times a season
 
Our post Fergie testimonial/almost testimonial squad makes quite a reading. The "preserving the value" Era ushered in by Woodie and co was truly something.

De Gea (12 seasons, at least 5 seasons post his sell by date. Last contract on ridiculous wages that most 20 goals/season strikers weren't getting back then)

Eric Bailly (7 seasons, 6 of them were garbage. Mind still boggles why he was given the last contract extension)
Phil Jones (12 season, 8 were garbage/on the IR. Even a more ridiculous last contract extension than one given to Bailly)
Lindelof (7 seasons, all range from bad to mediocre)
Marcus Rojo (7 seasons. Maybe 10 games in those 7 seasons were good. Iirc, the last couple of seasons we paid him to play for other clubs).
Shaw (10 seasons, may be 3 good seasons in those 10. Shawberto, apparently. Should have been sold with one year left on his deal, instead he got a bumper extension)

The McTominator (7 seasons. Jose's parting gift to us. Watch him get another extension)
Jesse Lingard (7 senior seasons. West Ham were stupid enough to want to pay for him with a year left, but we said no, we want some more. Then he left on a free).

Martial (9 seasons. Another one who should have been let go or sold with one year left but instead we gave him a bumper new contract; after that he played like 10 games for the club and was bothered in 2)

Zlatan got a contract extension at the tender age of 92 after he tore his ACL. Rashford got a Mbappe contract. Bruno was given a contract extension when there was no need to give him one and we could have easily waited till a new manager was in place. Mata's numerous contract extensions.Rooney and Nani contract extensions post Sir Alex. One season we paid Nani to play for Sporting. Pogba was kind and saved us by not signing a contract extension. I am sure there are a few others that I am missing.The list is endless.

The fact that Rojo was at the club until 2021 is truly mind boggling.

It feels like he only played in the LVG season and then was never seen again. I genuinely can't remember him after that.
 
Our post Fergie testimonial/almost testimonial squad makes quite a reading. The "preserving the value" Era ushered in by Woodie and co was truly something.

De Gea (12 seasons, at least 5 seasons post his sell by date. Last contract on ridiculous wages that most 20 goals/season strikers weren't getting back then)

Eric Bailly (7 seasons, 6 of them were garbage. Mind still boggles why he was given the last contract extension)
Phil Jones (12 season, 8 were garbage/on the IR. Even a more ridiculous last contract extension than one given to Bailly)
Lindelof (7 seasons, all range from bad to mediocre)
Marcus Rojo (7 seasons. Maybe 10 games in those 7 seasons were good. Iirc, the last couple of seasons we paid him to play for other clubs).
Shaw (10 seasons, may be 3 good seasons in those 10. Shawberto, apparently. Should have been sold with one year left on his deal, instead he got a bumper extension)

The McTominator (7 seasons. Jose's parting gift to us. Watch him get another extension)
Jesse Lingard (7 senior seasons. West Ham were stupid enough to want to pay for him with a year left, but we said no, we want some more. Then he left on a free).

Martial (9 seasons. Another one who should have been let go or sold with one year left but instead we gave him a bumper new contract; after that he played like 10 games for the club and was bothered in 2)

Zlatan got a contract extension at the tender age of 92 after he tore his ACL. Rashford got a Mbappe contract. Bruno was given a contract extension when there was no need to give him one and we could have easily waited till a new manager was in place. Mata's numerous contract extensions.Rooney and Nani contract extensions post Sir Alex. One season we paid Nani to play for Sporting. Pogba was kind and saved us by not signing a contract extension. I am sure there are a few others that I am missing.The list is endless.
Shaw's been very good nearly every season.
 
Shaw's been very good nearly every season.

Has he bollocks. For a start he’s been here 10 seasons and only twice managed to play over 30 PL games.

Season 1. Very underwhelming

Season 2. Absolutely World Class for 2 months, then the nightmare happened in September. Write-off season.

Seasons 3-5: Injury come back and out of favour with Mourinho.

Season 8: only managed 20 PL games

Season 10: write-off

I personally think he’s had 3 great seasons in 10, and 2 decent enough.
 
Has he bollocks. For a start he’s been here 10 seasons and only twice managed to play over 30 PL games.

Season 1. Very underwhelming

Season 2. Absolutely World Class for 2 months, then the nightmare happened in September. Write-off season.

Seasons 3-5: Injury come back and out of favour with Mourinho.

Season 8: only managed 20 PL games

Season 10: write-off

I personally think he’s had 3 great seasons in 10, and 2 decent enough.
He cannot help being injured, when playing he's been one of the best LBs consistently aside from probably 1 season.
 
He cannot help being injured, when playing he's been one of the best LBs consistently aside from probably 1 season.

Martial’s had a lot of injuries also.

Seasons 1-5 were pretty much write-offs due to injury and poor form. This season is another write-off.

Doesn’t matter how you paint it, if he’s been a top left back for us in 3 seasons of 10, you can’t then make your claim that he’s “been very good nearly every season”.
 
Difference between Shaw and Martial is that Shaw has been generally decent when he’s played, despite missing a lot of time to injury. Martial misses a lot of games and then comes back in to the side and is invisible.
 
Lads, every player in the world would probably have been better under SAF. This isn’t groundbreaking news. Martial had a tonne of talent and I thought Mourinho was harsh on him at the time, but he was clearly right. It almost pains me to agree with him, but he spotted some of the wrongs with the club right away.

The injuries finished any serious chance he had of being a top player. Whether that was bad luck or lack of care on his part, I guess we’ll never know. Either way, he’s been blagging a massive wage for four years now and sympathy for him is close to zero. 90 goals in 9 years is shameful stuff for someone who played as a central striker for half of them.
 
Shaw is English so therefore deemed world class when he doesn't play terribly.
 
Our post Fergie testimonial/almost testimonial squad makes quite a reading. The "preserving the value" Era ushered in by Woodie and co was truly something.

De Gea (12 seasons, at least 5 seasons post his sell by date. Last contract on ridiculous wages that most 20 goals/season strikers weren't getting back then)

Eric Bailly (7 seasons, 6 of them were garbage. Mind still boggles why he was given the last contract extension)
Phil Jones (12 season, 8 were garbage/on the IR. Even a more ridiculous last contract extension than one given to Bailly)
Lindelof (7 seasons, all range from bad to mediocre)
Marcus Rojo (7 seasons. Maybe 10 games in those 7 seasons were good. Iirc, the last couple of seasons we paid him to play for other clubs).
Shaw (10 seasons, may be 3 good seasons in those 10. Shawberto, apparently. Should have been sold with one year left on his deal, instead he got a bumper extension)

The McTominator (7 seasons. Jose's parting gift to us. Watch him get another extension)
Jesse Lingard (7 senior seasons. West Ham were stupid enough to want to pay for him with a year left, but we said no, we want some more. Then he left on a free).

Martial (9 seasons. Another one who should have been let go or sold with one year left but instead we gave him a bumper new contract; after that he played like 10 games for the club and was bothered in 2)

Zlatan got a contract extension at the tender age of 92 after he tore his ACL. Rashford got a Mbappe contract. Bruno was given a contract extension when there was no need to give him one and we could have easily waited till a new manager was in place. Mata's numerous contract extensions.Rooney and Nani contract extensions post Sir Alex. One season we paid Nani to play for Sporting. Pogba was kind and saved us by not signing a contract extension. I am sure there are a few others that I am missing.The list is endless.

Great post that puts into perspective how fecking badly run we've been.

Even towards the end of Fergie we started to hold onto players who were clearly nowhere near good enough, Anderson being at the club from 2007 to 2015 is a great example of this, but it really ramped up after Fergie went.

It felt like if you managed to stay fit and play well for a month you got a new 5 year contract automatically.
 
Our post Fergie testimonial/almost testimonial squad makes quite a reading. The "preserving the value" Era ushered in by Woodie and co was truly something.

De Gea (12 seasons, at least 5 seasons post his sell by date. Last contract on ridiculous wages that most 20 goals/season strikers weren't getting back then)

Eric Bailly (7 seasons, 6 of them were garbage. Mind still boggles why he was given the last contract extension)
Phil Jones (12 season, 8 were garbage/on the IR. Even a more ridiculous last contract extension than one given to Bailly)
Lindelof (7 seasons, all range from bad to mediocre)
Marcus Rojo (7 seasons. Maybe 10 games in those 7 seasons were good. Iirc, the last couple of seasons we paid him to play for other clubs).
Shaw (10 seasons, may be 3 good seasons in those 10. Shawberto, apparently. Should have been sold with one year left on his deal, instead he got a bumper extension)

The McTominator (7 seasons. Jose's parting gift to us. Watch him get another extension)
Jesse Lingard (7 senior seasons. West Ham were stupid enough to want to pay for him with a year left, but we said no, we want some more. Then he left on a free).

Martial (9 seasons. Another one who should have been let go or sold with one year left but instead we gave him a bumper new contract; after that he played like 10 games for the club and was bothered in 2)

Zlatan got a contract extension at the tender age of 92 after he tore his ACL. Rashford got a Mbappe contract. Bruno was given a contract extension when there was no need to give him one and we could have easily waited till a new manager was in place. Mata's numerous contract extensions.Rooney and Nani contract extensions post Sir Alex. One season we paid Nani to play for Sporting. Pogba was kind and saved us by not signing a contract extension. I am sure there are a few others that I am missing.The list is endless.
What a shit show.

Although, I will say McT is a perfectly adequate squad player. No issue with him sticking around. You need players like him in a 50-55 game season.
 
Shaw's been very good nearly every season.

That's not what I remember. He has had some terrible seasons and a few injury ridden seasons. There has been a noticeable shift of opinion on Shaw here, because I remember when he was regarded as an overweight, lazy, waste of space who was too passive defensively, according to the majority of our supporters. And they were right at the time, because he was bad for quite a few of the seasons he's been here.
 
What a shit show.

Although, I will say McT is a perfectly adequate squad player. No issue with him sticking around. You need players like him in a 50-55 game season.
No you don't if you are serious about being a team competing for top honours year in year out .
 
Class player. Fergie would have gotten the best out of him.

Played his best years with selfish english brats like Rashy and Greenwood. Overplayed and poorly managed.

Made the scapegoat every time but each time he was vindicated. Cavani was poor. Ronaldo couldn’t do shit. Hoijland is awful now.

Obviously it wasn’t Martial or the other strikers/CFs who were the problem - if only dumb fans could see how disjointed we are.

Martial was never the player to shine in a team of individuals. Heck, he never even took shots on goal - his game is all about link up. I hope he finds a good team and finishes his career on a high in the CL

Well that's one way of looking at it. :lol:
 
Yes. Or it’s because he is actually a very good left back when fit.

Yes, but he’s not fit often enough so is of very limited utility to us. He offers nothing from the treatment room. We probably need to sign a new left back this summer
 
Yes, but he’s not fit often enough so is of very limited utility to us. He offers nothing from the treatment room. We probably need to sign a new left back this summer
I agree, but the post I was responding to was talking about performances when fit. I’ve said in multiple threads that a top left back should be higher priority than right back. Shaw can fill in at left centre back for game time; I genuinely think he needs to try moving there to prolong his career now. He can’t keep covering the amount of distance he’s expected to at full back.
 
One last dance. FA cup final winning goal - we will be there
When did he last score a goal that won us a match, or earned us points?

I observed a few years ago that he only scores when we're already winning, and I can't think of a single goal he's scored since which has been of any importance
 
Just had a look at the stats. In the Prem it’s 01 Jan 2021, 3 years and 3 months ago. That’s a terrible stat for him!

If he’s truly on 250k per week as some think, that’s £42.75 million in wages. FML.
 
Sad end to his United career. He might just have been the most naturally gifted player in technical terms I’ve seen come through in the post SAF era. But he’s just never had the mentality or fitness levels of a great player.

We should have gone for Isak as a replacement who reminds me a lot of Martial.

Agree. By far the best dribbler (pre injuries) we've had post SAF and it isn't close. Thought it was finally coming together after his brilliant 19/20 season and then he got off to a bit of a cold start before endless injuries pretty much shut the door on any sort of promise he had the rest of his time here.

In another life some other big club buys him and develops him better and he's talked about far differently.
 
Only 1 unqualified successful season, 19-20 when much of it was played in empty stadiums, sadly he just didn’t have the mentality to match the talent.

How are you dismissing his 2015-16 first season with 17 goals as not a success out of interest?
 
Shaw's been very good nearly every season.
That is just not true at all. He hasn't put two consecutive good seasons together in his entire time here, mostly due to injury but also loss of form. I'd say three very good seasons in his career here.

It's fair to say we've had some talented but very inconsistent players here.
 
Say the last 3-4 years. Or since his new contract. Of the goals he has scored in that time, how many have been important goals?

Okay so 2019/2020 season

Opener and only goal against Wolves

Winner against Partizan

Equalizer against Brugge

2nd goal against City (won 2-1)

Equalizer against Newcastle

Opener against Chelsea

Opener against City

Hat trick against Sheffield (I don't know how many of those you deem "important" but he scored the only goals in the game himself)

Go ahead goal against Southampton (but we ended up drawing so was it "important" in the end?)

That's just one season where he scored openers in big games, or winners/equalizers in the league and in the EL


After that it's largely been a gamut of injuries and playing non fit up until now, but saying he never scored important goals for us in his career is just strange.
 
It’s a shame how it all worked out but souls have gone a long time ago. At least all his wages will finally be off the books and if they are anything close to the 250k that is often reported that will largely fund a replacement like Sesko.