The first thing to stress is Anthony Martial's sellable status for the summer was taken before he broke down again last week.
As effusive as Erik ten Hag is about Martial during press conferences, his patience has expired. Martial has missed 20 of United's 34 games and a combined 16 weeks this season through five separate injury lay-offs.
Martial, 27, has six goals on Ten Hag's watch and tallied a meagre eight United goals in the previous two seasons. He is out of contract in June 2024. The only surprise about United's intention to sell him is that anybody could be surprised.
Also read: United open to selling Martial
United have the option of an additional year on Martial's contract to protect their asset but his worth has diminished in the last two-and-a-half years. Martial's finest campaign with the club remains his first - back when Louis van Gaal was the manager.
The decisiveness that United have acted with to plan ahead without a player Ten Hag feels they "play our best football" with is another progressive step for a club that is getting the big calls right.
United intend to sign a new long-term striker and Martial capitulates whenever there is competition. The evidence is stark: Martial reacted passive aggressively to Zlatan Ibrahimovic taking the number nine off him, he wanted out after Alexis Sanchez came in, Edinson Cavani was supposed to keep Martial on his toes and trampled all over them and his goal return was never worse than when Cristiano Ronaldo shared the same dressing room.
So why should United continue to countenance Martial? His agent, Philippe Lamboley, also has form for disruptive comments. Martial and Lamboley undermined Ralf Rangnick and Jose Mourinho.
The player power era is over at United and Martial was pandered to maybe more than any teammate other than Paul Pogba. Ten Hag cut down the gargantuan ego of Ronaldo down to size and publicly disciplined one of the country's players of the season in Marcus Rashford. Anyone else is small-fry.
Martial is one of their top-five highest earners and he has often failed to keep up his side of the bargain since signing his last contract in January 2019. Rashford is in discussions over a new contract but coy.
United have to set up a stall in the seller's market with Uefa's new sustainability laws to consider. They owe £306.7million in transfer fees to other clubs and their wage bill rocketed to £384m last season.
The TeamViewer shirt sponsorship was not as lucrative as its predecessor Chevrolet's seven-year deal and it was announced in December that it will end before the five-year contract United agreed in March 2021. Brands halted discussions with United over the backlash to the shameful Super League venture and the club are straying close to six years without silverware. The club is also up for sale, hence three loan deals in January.
Against an unsettling financial backdrop, United are third in the Premier League, in the League Cup final, through to the fifth round of the FA Cup and have a Europa League play-off with Barcelona to stir supporters.
The £225.4m investment in five players in the summer has largely paid off for United, although not as much as the appointment of Ten Hag. Irrespective of whether Ten Hag's reign is trophyless or trophy-laden, United got the managerial call correct.
United's revenue for this season is forecasted at north of £600m. Should United be back in the Champions League next season and with a new attraction in the Old Trafford museum for visitors, the club will be in a position of strength to buy and sell.
There is a growing acceptance Harry Maguire's peripheral position will lead to the departures lounge. Maguire, 30 in March, had another fine international tournament with England but unless he starts in either of this week's tribal meetings with Leeds United, he will have lined up in two Premier League games in six months.
Ten Hag disputed Maguire is the fifth-choice centre-back at United. In a best-case scenario that considers only the specialists, he is fourth. Luke Shaw still started ahead of Maguire in one of United's most uplifting wins of the season against Manchester City.
Certain players' reputations have recovered through a period of inactivity or United's ascent. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was unsellable in the summer but after 11 starts in the last 13 games he is more valuable to United than West Ham, who eyed a loan move in January.
United have pencilled in some first-team squad members for loans next season but a club that has been infamously inept at selling has made a proactive start. If Ten Hag is to add a more dynamic midfielder to a department that will have three 30-somethings come March, United have to make room for him. Ten Hag has not closed the door on Frenkie de Jong and regards Jude Bellingham as a complete midfielder.
Offloading Maguire would also allow Ten Hag to balance out the defence with another left-footed centre half. Maguire's professionalism in inauspicious circumstances has impressed figures at United and he remains determined to win a first career trophy with the club.
Maguire will likely be available at Wembley. The same cannot necessarily be said of Martial.
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