Martial fee ‘is £58m’

RAHEEM STERLING, who has hit the ground running at Manchester City, is now called a £49million footballer following his transfer from liverpool. As that figure includes all future addons in the deal, City consider it only fair that Manchester United’s teenage signing from Monaco, Anthony Martial, should be described as costing £58m rather than £36m.

Meanwhile, after a transfer window in which Everton and West Brom turned down huge offers for John Stones and Saido Berahino respectively, leading agents believe that buy-out clauses, commonplace on the Continent, will become more prevalent in English football.

ANDY MURRAY, who ditched adidas kit to sign for booming US company Under Armour at the start of the year, is still wearing adidas Barricade shoes at the US Open this week. Under Armour have not managed to produce hard-court footwear that suits him. Adidas tweeted: ‘You can choose armour or you choose a weapon.’ THE Football league will be hoping to exploit the absence of Premier league football in international week to improve poor audience figures for their new Channel 5 highlights show, which dipped below 500,000 viewers last Saturday despite its 9pm peak-time slot.