Ahead of Manchester United’s game against Arsenal, Arsene Wenger has again spoken of his admiration for Anthony Martial, who joined United from Monaco this summer.
Our new striker scored four and assisted one in his opening five games, but Wenger had previously claimed he hadn’t signed Martial because he was a winger, and they had adequate cover. Martial’s agent mocked Wenger for passing up the opportunity, saying “in football, there are those who follow players and those who buy them.”
Wenger has today spoken of his surprise that Monaco allowed Martial to leave, having previously claimed he would not be sold in the summer.
I was surprised they sold him. The amount of money was massive. I believe that you could think that, if you are Monaco, you could have sold him as well next season. So I thought they would not sell him this year because they sold many other players. I thought they would maintain their word. He was not sellable. He was not on the list. He was one of the players Monaco did not want to sell, so we never made an approach for him. Only an acceptable amount of money after could do it. We always liked him, even when he was in Lyon.
