Not leaving again? Martial returns to Manchester United

Manchester United winger Anthony Martial has returned to the club after attending the birth of his son.

The French international was pictured arriving at United’s training ground on Friday 3rd August. Martial has been linked with a move away from Old Trafford with his agent Philippe Lamboley confirming the player wants to leave the club.

Mourinho will be willing to let the winger leave if he is not happy as the Special One has the policy of letting wantaway players go although United chiefs are keen to hang onto a prized asset.

The pair’s strained relationship has again come under scrutiny after Martial failed to promptly return to Carrington after being given permission to fly to Paris to be with his partner, Melanie, for the birth of their son, Swan, last week.

Martial has defended his decision to put family first after irking Jose Mourinho by staying with his partner after she gave birth instead of returning to Manchester United’s pre-season tour.

The Red Devils’ frustrating tour of the United States ended with a 2-1 win against Real Madrid on Tuesday, when the France international was again conspicuous by his absence.

Martial told Mourinho that he would be leaving for the birth of his second child after starting the first two matches Stateside and his failure to return from Europe afterwards vexed the manager.

The United boss said after the penultimate match of the tour against Liverpool that “he should be here, and he is not here”, then admitted on Tuesday that he did not know when the 22-year-old would be back with the group in Manchester.

Martial broke his silence shortly after the team landed back in the UK to confirm he will be back on Thursday, when there may well be a frosty reception despite the public justification of his absence.

“Thanks for all your posts,” he wrote on Twitter.

“My little Swan is fine, for the mum it was harder but thank god she is better now.

“Sorry but my family will always come first… back tomorrow in Manchester.”

Anthony Martial

@AnthonyMartial

Merci à tous pour vos messages. Mon petit Swan va bien, pour la maman ça était plus difficile mais Grâce à Dieu elle va mieux maintenant. Desolé mais ma famille passera toujours avant Tout… Retour demain à Manchester ??

Martial could reportedly be handed a two-week fine of around £180,000 for failing to return to America and Mourinho appeared to aim a thinly-veiled dig at him after beating Real as next Friday’s Premier League opener against Leicester looms large.

“My players, amazing in their effort but we have more effort in front of us,” said Mourinho, who leads United to Bayern Munich on Sunday in their final pre-season friendly.

Anthony Martial TEAMtalk

“Because in a few days we go to Munich and we start the Premier League in nine days.

“These are the players that we have plus (Victor) Lindelof, that starts training two days ago, plus Marcus Rashford, (Phil) Jones and (Romelu) Lukaku because they gave to the group and to the team three days of their holidays.

“So, they’re coming back three days early to try and be available for the team.

“And with the fantastic spirit we have in the majority of the players, I repeat: in the majority of the players, we have a fantastic spirit, we go with everything we have to the Premier League.”

It is hard to see a thawing of the tensions between Martial and Mourinho, with the United forward sure to be one of the main subjects of transfer talk this month.

 

 

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