United will sell Martial ‘for the right price’

JOSE Mourinho is open to selling Anthony Martial if United receive an appropriate offer.

Martial’s agent Philippe Lamboley stressed last month the Frenchman wants to leave the club but Mourinho has had to start Martial, below, in United’s pre-season friendlies against Club America and San Jose Earthquakes in the absence of World Cup participants Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford.

Despite the United hierarchy’s preference to keep a forward they invested up to £58million in back in 2015, Mourinho has no interest in retaining players who openly want to leave and has previously clarified he would sanction sales if United get the right offers from suitable clubs.

Bayern Munich have shown interest in Martial and United would have 22 days after the Premier League window shuts to offload the France international.

The Premier League transfer window closes on August 9 and the M.E.N. previously reported United rebuffed an enquiry from Tottenham for Martial in June.

United will trigger the oneyear extension in Martial’s contract to tie him to Old Trafford until 2020 if they keep him beyond the Fifa transfer deadline of August 31.

Mourinho’s openness to jettisoning Martial could hasten a move for a forward amid interest in Willian and Gareth Bale.

The Martial situation is complicated by United’s struggles to sign an attacker in the transfer window. Should they fail to reinforce their frontline before August 9, a Martial sale to a foreign club would leave United under-resourced up front.