Manchester United want to sign Croatia World Cup Star Ivan Perisic before they let Anthony Martial leave.
Martial, who has returned from United’s pre-season tour of the US for the birth of his second child, has been given the green light to leave Okd Trafford - but only on their terms.
United want at least £70million for Martial and are determined he moves abroad, despite interest from Premier League rivals Chelsea and Tottenham.
Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich are also in the hunt for Martial and it is understood the 22-year-old forward would favour a move to the French capital, where his partner, Melanie Da Cruz, is due to give birth to their son.
With the Premier League transfer window closing on August 9, United are under pressure to bring in a replacement for Martial before letting him go, with Inter Milan star Perisic top of the list.
United boss Jose Mourinho tried to but Perisic last summer for a fee of around £40m, but the winger’s impressive World Cup campaign in Croatia’s march to the final, has pushed his value up to the £60m mark.
Martial is desperate to quit Old Trafford for a fresh start elsewhere and Mourinho will let him go, but only to a club of United’s choosing and for their £70m valuation.
Mourinho confirmed Matteo Darmian wants to leave United but said none of the offers the club have received for the Italian defender have been acceptable.
“Matteo wants to leave and I think when a player wants to leave, if the right offer arrives, you have to try to be human and let the player follow his instinct,” said Mourinho.
“But not at any price and, until now, the offers we got for Matteo are not even close to being accepted.
“Antonio Valencia is injured, and I think he will be injured for the beginning of Premier League season.
“Diogo Dalot is also in a recovering phase, and he will not be ready for beginning of Premier League.
“Ashley Young is a possibility to play right-back, but he is on holiday, and I don’t know if he fancies to be back for that and put himself up to be available for the team or stay on holiday.
“Victor Lindelof is a possibility there, he’s not a right-back but he’s a possibility, and he starts training next Monday.
“I will send people to Manchester to train with Victor, because it makes no sense for him to come to the US when we are leaving next week.
“So if Matteo leaves, he leaves because the right offer arrives, and if he stays, he can be important for us.”
MohilPratap
95
Ivan Perisic has only few more years to play ..almost 2 to 3 years ... we need to keep Martial because he is just 22 years old and we have seen how good player he turn out to be in last 2 seasons .... Jose Mourinho sold some great players when he was in chelsea ..like Kevin De Bruyne, Mohammad Salah ... now he wants to sell martial who will become a good player somewhere else in years to come... please dont sell rashford lingard pogba martial ...all of them are less than 25 years old ...let them show their real level soccer when they reach their peak ... the only player I wish they sign is Alex Sandro of Juventus..
ChloeSam18
64
Personally I agree we must fight to get Perisic! He’s better than Martial. United really2 need a speed experience & world class winger! Not to say Martial is not good but he needs more time to growing & improve before he can be a world class. And that will not happen if he still under Jose. He knows it. Why Martial? Because he’s valued & he catch more interest from various club compare to Rashford - so Martial is suitable to go. It’s sad to see of course but we need Perisic to part with Sanchez, Pogba & Matic to boost our midfield. Martial will be better & going to be a top player one day at another club but it’s just not with Manchester United. It’s good for him to go and it’s good for United also if we want to challenge the title next season. Good luck!
huyaeikly
56
we need to win trophies and that happens only with already full experience and talented players....we aint here to build players...man united is a big club...
calvinrashy
54
It has been said many times, no young player can develop under Mourinho. Mourinho just can't trust his young, talented players and that is bad for Man Utd. He plays them once in one game and the next they are benched what is that?? Mourinho is afraid of failure and then goes playing forwards as defensive wing backs, we won't score goals, we can't help Lukaku be top scorer or achieve a top number of assists from Pogba, Sanchez or even Mata. The best thing is we get a manager other than Mourinho coz he is just going to bring losing players to United and sell future and long serving stars
Davichi
14
Personally I agree we must fight to get Perisic! He’s better than Martial. United really2 need a speed experience & world class winger! Not to say Martial is not good but he needs more time to growing & improve before he can be a world class. And that will not happen if he still under Jose. He knows it. Why Martial? Because he’s valued & he catch more interest from various club compare to Rashford - so Martial is suitable to go. It’s sad to see of course but we need Perisic to part with Sanchez, Pogba & Matic to boost our midfield. Martial will be better & going to be a top player one day at another club but it’s just not with Manchester United. It’s good for him to go and it’s good for United also if we want to challenge the title next season. Good luck!
I disagree with this logic. If Mourinho is not capable of building young players than he is not fit to coach a club like United. How many more years can Sanchez and Perisic play at top level compared to the years Martial and Rashford will give if properly groomed? Other clubs are securing their future with young talents while United wants to sell their future for the hope of not more than two years of pleasure. Now we see the reason why Mourinho finds it difficult to succeed more than 3 seasons in a club, because he can only work with experienced players who have seen it all and the average age of such a player is 28... they can't give more than 3 seasons at the top level. You say Martial is better placed to achieve success elsewhere. When he goes and begins to win trophies for many seasons with his new club, we'd begin to lament because our aged players would have watched off by than and Mourinho would most likely be gone... I would prefer to see Mourinho leave United now than to see any of those young lads leave.