Anthony Martial wants to sign a new Manchester United contract now that Jose Mourinho has left the club. France forward Martial shelved negotiations over an extension to his current deal earlier on in the season because of the difficult relationship between him and Mourinho.
He felt Mourinho did not give him a fair chance to secure a first-team place, while the pair fell out several times. Among those was the one where Martial left the manager fuming by flying home from United’s pre-season tour in the USA to attend the birth of his child and then not returning to the club for over a week.
🎥 Anthony Martial on:
Learning from Ole 🤓
Being happy with his form 📈
Appreciating the fans 👏 pic.twitter.com/aAVxC29t9D— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 22, 2019
In contrast, the 23-year-old has enjoyed a new lease of life since Mourinho was sacked last month and is impressed with interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s way of doing things. He has started five of the seven games Solskjaer has been in in charge for, and his form has restricted the number of appearances the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Jessie Lingard have made.
Martial is believed to have instructed his agent Philippe Lamboley to strike a deal with United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward. His current deal was due to expire in the summer, but United bosses triggered an option of a 12-month extension to stop him from being able to talk to rival clubs.
Oh Yessss Anthony Martial five years more of this 😍😍😍😍pic.twitter.com/J5rwYwWAod
— SheRaz (@sheRazAhmed011) January 18, 2019
Mourinho was prepared to sell Martial, but Woodward refused to sanction his departure and it caused huge friction between the two. Now the Portuguese has left Old Trafford, Martial is expected to agree a long term deal worth around £150,000-a-week in the coming weeks and pledge his long-term future to the club.
Martial admits he is loving life under Solskjaer and he said: “I’m happy, because I’m playing more now this season than I was previously. So hopefully that can continue. I want to continue scoring goals and obviously that will have the effect of helping the team, so as long as I’m playing I am very happy.”