The day after Manchester United signed Anthony Martial, Arsene Wenger was critical about the amount of money that was spent.
What happened last night with Monaco, who sold Martial to Manchester United. Martial scored 11 goals in the French championship – that sums it up well.
After Martial scored three goals in his first two appearances, Wenger claimed that he has been following Martial’s career since he was a youngster, but decided against signing him because he was a winger, and he had sufficient cover in that position.
We have known him since he was a kid. But he’s more of a winger-type. He’s an exceptional talent I agree with you but I believe that he plays in positions where we have players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis Sanchez and Joel Campbell who can play in the position.
Martial’s agent, Philippe Lamboley has mocked Wenger for passing on the chance to sign Martial.
Anthony is a true modern centre-forward who can play a part. I am surprised by the analysis of Arsene Wenger, who has apparently been following him since he was a teenager. If the analysis Arsene Wenger has made is in order to justify not having signed Anthony, I accept he is a winger. But in football, there are those who follow players and those who buy them.
Wenger has responded to the agent today, admitting his surprise at how Martial has started, now making it four goals in four appearances, which works out an average of one goal every 56 minutes.
It’s a surprise because sometimes it’s quite difficult at the start. To maintain that will be very difficult for him so he will have to have some understanding of that as well if he starts to score less. He has already set the expectation level very high. I’m not surprised that he’s done well because he’s a very talented player.
He was more of a winger in his whole career. He played the final part of last season as a striker. But Monaco’s statement was always that the two players that would not move were Martial and (Layvin) Kurzawa, so I thought they would maintain that. But in the end both of them moved.
Out of interest, Arsenal’s players are guilty of missing the most clear-cut goalscoring chances this season: Theo Walcott (6) Sergio Aguero (6) Olivier Giroud (5) Alexis (5).
