In the short-term, this could make all the sense in the world to José Mourinho. In the long-term, we're not so sure.
Swapping a prodigious, pacy 21-year-old for a talented, busy 28-year-old? José Mourinho prefers results to potential.
He wants hard workers and acolytes. There is only so much potential a player can show, in Mourinho's world, before he wants to see cold, hard results. Goals, assists, match-winning moments, tracking back, metres covered. He looks at the scoreboard and makes the call.
Anthony Martial had a very good first season in the Premier League, under Louis van Gaal, but he slipped back once Mourinho took over at Manchester United.
United paid out £36m up front for Martial and once he hit 15 goals and made 50 appearances for them, Monaco got another £5m. That may well be the last of the bonus payments they see from United.
Ivan Perisic looks set to join United this summer as Mourinho nears his goal of getting four fresh bodies through the doors. Adnan Januzaj and Wayne Rooney have left, with Romelu Lukaku amd Victor Lindelof arriving at Old Trafford in recent weeks.
Inter want over £40m for the Croatian winger but they may be more amenable were United to loan them Martial for the season. Roma were reportedly willing to pay around £30m to take the French forward to Serie A but going to Inter for a season may allow United to assess their options during Mourinho's changing of the guard.
On Friday, Inter Milan adviser Walter Sabatini told
Sky Italia:
"[Inter coach Luciano] Spalletti has asked not to sell Perisic. He wants Perisic as one of his players because he is fantastic. Inter wouldn’t like to sell him but at the same time the club doesn’t want to have an unhappy player.
"One thing is certain – the price of our players will be set by Inter Milan. We hope Perisic will stay but we will know more in the next day. If Perisic will leave, we want money and a player and we expect Perisic over these next days will show good behaviour."
Good behaviour... That's him told.
It appears, to our mind, that Perisic is Old Trafford bound. Whether United want to let Martial take his place, even for a season, is not so certain.
Martial is a young man with a young family and it can't be easy to relocate and cope with added outside demands with so much in flux. Another year older and wiser, he should stay at United and show all concerned he is truly capable of producing on the highest stage.
