Jose Mourinho has warned Anthony Martial that ‘you don’t always get what you want in life’ as the Frenchman tries to manoeuvre a way out of Manchester United. Martial’s agent Philippe Lamboley revealed last month that the 22-year-old forward wants to leave Old Trafford after falling out favour under Mourinho and failing to agree terms over a new contract.
Tottenham, Chelsea and Bayern Munich among the clubs showing an interest in the former Monaco player who joined United in 2015 in a £36million deal that could rise to £58m. Jose Mourinho will let Anthony Martial leave this summer as long as Manchester United can find the right price and club for the unsettled Frenchman.
Mourinho warned Martial that he cannot dictate his own terms after the 22-year-old winger failed to impress in a goalless draw with San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday. But it’s understood that the United manager has no wish to keep an unhappy player and will urge the Old Trafford board to sell Martial so he can sign a replacement before the transfer deadline on August 9.
Martial is entering the final year of his current deal, although United have the option to extend it by another 12 months. After he struggled to impress despite playing the whole 90 minutes of a goalless draw with San Jose Earthquakes in Santa Clara, Mourinho told the player that he cannot expect to simply walk away.
‘I would like to be in Los Angeles now and I am in San Jose,’ said Mourinho. ‘You cannot do whatever you want in life. I would love to arrive in LA, to train in LA and play all my five matches in LA, and then don’t travel, don’t change hotel and then go back to Manchester. I would like to play against Leicester on Sunday but I have to play on Friday, so you don’t get always in life what you want.’
Mourinho was happy with Alexis Sanchez’s contribution after the Chilean played 64 minutes at the Levi’s Stadium despite missing the first week of United’s tour due to a visa problem. But the Portuguese coach admits that it is turning into a difficult tour with 12 World Cup stars still unavailable to him.
‘Sanchez was okay,’ added Mourinho. ‘We left one guy behind to work with him and we knew from the physical point of view he would be okay. Match fitness is a different thing but we knew he could be good and it was a good physical effort for him – a bit more than an hour, which was good. For me, it’s a very strange pre-season. How many of these players are going to play the majority of the games in the Premier League? You couldn’t count them on one hand.
‘Pre-season, you try to be motivated and motivate the people around you, but it’s not easy. I did some pre-season with some players but to have 10 players away is very strange. So the motivation is to try to train the best we can, to give the players minutes, to give young players an opportunity to develop and that’s it.’ Mourinho confirmed that Nemanja Matic has trained for the first time, and David De Gea and Fred are due in camp, but none of them are expected to play in the third game against AC Milan in LA on Thursday.
Asked if he still wants to make more signings before the deadline on August 9, Mourinho said: ‘One thing is what I want and another thing is what is going to happen.’