“I think people don’t really know me,” Anthony Martial says. “Sometimes you see me and I’m not smiling, but in life you can ask anyone: I’m always smiling. I’m just on the pitch, focused, trying to do my best so I’m not smiling, but that doesn’t reflect how I feel.” And yet, he admits, by November it did – not least because he wasn’t on the pitch much any more, playing only 11% of available minutes this season. The joy had gone and it was time to get out of Manchester United. Seville held the hope of happiness.
Ralf Rangnick claimed that Martial had asked not to play against Aston Villa in January. The striker denied that, but admits he had told United’s manager he wanted to leave almost two months earlier. He returned three days after Villa, providing an assist for Marcus Rashford’s late winner against West Ham, but it would be his last game. United had resisted a sale but three days later, a six-month loan to Spain was finalised. Now, 51 days on, he returns to England to face David Moyes’s side again, this time in Sevilla’s colours.
