Anthony Martial

[Klinsmannesque]

Jose would be more than happy to wait a year to get Alderweireld instead of letting us get Martial. I'm certain of that.

The last thing Mourinho needs is giving one of his title rivals a missing piece of their jigsaw and to see Martial go onto be the next KDB, Lukaku or Salah. Believe me Jose being the snake he is would have thought this through and probably realised that saying no to a Toby/ Martial deal will save him hassle during the season and plenty of face. He loses nothing if he doesn't go through with the deal and a lot if the deal happens and Martial smashes it more than Sanchez & Rashford this season. The guy ain't stupid, if anything I think he's stringing us along

I disagree. Jose will be gone next summer, maybe the one after. He’s a manager that lives in the now, doesn’t plan for the future. He wants the tools to do the job this year, won’t care about next, or the one after.

 

[JonnySpurs]

10M plus the best centre back in the premier, not exactly the biggest bargain in the world, but I see your point.

I see the logic that Martial could play instead of Kane when needed or otherwise play as a wide player, however with Son / Lamela / Moura already being able to cover the wide role I am not sure we should be going all out for him.

You have to factor in his age and injury record though. On ability alone I agree with you but for me, we're getting the far younger player, super talented and could have a huge impact for us for many years. Toby's time at Utd would be 3 years or so if he can stay fit.

For that reason I feel we'd have to pay a bit in order to get him.

Personally I don't see Lamela playing wide for us anymore. I think he will be more central. He's good at picking a pass and he's shown that he can get forward and score as well. It's never really worked for him out wide for us IMO.

 

[michaelden]

I think it's so dumb that Spurs and United would be unwilling to do business with each other in a mutually beneficial way. If they sell us Martial and we sell them Alderweireld it benefits both clubs. It's pretty basic game theory - cooperation, regardless of relative benefits, tends to ensure absolute benefits to both parties.

and yet game theory is based on the premise we are all innately selfish. Such a base premise goes against the whole mutual swap as even if you get what you want, you lose as your opponent does too. The more I read and learn on game theory the more I realise it was flawed from the initial premise through to its wider application. The film "The Beautiful Mind" should've been called, "The Twisted Mind".

 

[SpartanSpur]

All depends on how talks between Toby and Poch go, but if he has to leave I'd be happy for Levy to give Utd a bit of a win and pay Toby + cash for Martial to push it through, say £10-15m. Let Utd feel they've won the initial deal so that they are less concerned about Martial showing them up.

That way we get our top attacking target and at least aren't at the mercy to losing Toby on the cheap to Arsenal/Chelsea/Pool next summer.

Big issue is how things are looking with CB replacements though. Pavard seems off and the Maguire money is stupid. Plus big question marks on whether De Ligt would be allowed to leave.

 

[ToDarrenIsToDo]

I disagree. Jose will be gone next summer, maybe the one after. He’s a manager that lives in the now, doesn’t plan for the future. He wants the tools to do the job this year, won’t care about next, or the one after.

Jose cares about 2 things. Winning and his reputation. Without Toby in their ranks people won't give him stick if they come up short compared to how much stick he'd get if Martial were to join another Premier League rival and turn into a genuine star. It'll make Mourinhos man management look a farce once again.

It depends on Jose I guess, but if he really wants Toby like some are suggesting and he's happy to let Martial leave then what other reasons would he have not to sell/ swap to another Premier League club to get the defender he is after?

He's either concerned about his image which is already dented with letting the likes of KDB, Salah or Lukaku stifle under his leadership or he's concerned about strengthening Tottenham as a premier League rival much so that he'd be happier to let Martial waste another year of his career rather than get the playing time he's clearly after.

Personally the more I think about Martial's & Zaha's qualities and what they would bring to our team, I'm leaning towards Zaha but if we are able to get one or the other in, it definitely strengthens us as an attacking threat in a very big way and would show that we are taking another step up in our recruitment processes. Two big targets it would be great to see one of them drop if we're able to strike a realistic deal for either of them

 

[Living Legend Colm G]

I'm really starting to feel that Martial is this window's Ross Barkley.

Just wait until we get random ITK that his missus has quit her job to work as a hairdresser in London. Of course then he'll end up at Chelsea in January ,)

 

[Jamturk]

Politically speaking if the Utd board prefer McGuire to Toby overruling Mourinho then their stance on Martial isn't going to change.

 

[MarkyP]

have a horrible feeling Utd will drag this one out up until the deadline, manage to get Toby, keep Martial and leave us empty handed...

 

[ToDarrenIsToDo]

have a horrible feeling Utd will drag this one out up until the deadline, manage to get Toby, keep Martial and leave us empty handed...

I'd set them a deadline by the end of July maximum if there is any inkling a deal can be struck. Just because there's a national deadline on deals doesn't mean we can't set our own deadlines to give us sufficient time to go for other possible targets.

 

[SpartanSpur]

have a horrible feeling Utd will drag this one out up until the deadline, manage to get Toby, keep Martial and leave us empty handed...

Agree this seems the most likely scenario. Don't underestimate Levy's hatred of Utd though, it'd have to be a stupid fee if he was going to give them what they want, and they don't seem keen on that.

 

[freeeki]

100 pages.

Where is he?

 

[allatsea]

Politically speaking if the Utd board prefer McGuire to Toby overruling Mourinho then their stance on Martial isn't going to change.

Maureen will throw a strop and the year 3 syndrome will kick in once again.

 

[ItsBoris]

and yet game theory is based on the premise we are all innately selfish. Such a base premise goes against the whole mutual swap as even if you get what you want, you lose as your opponent does too. The more I read and learn on game theory the more I realise it was flawed from the initial premise through to its wider application. The film "The Beautiful Mind" should've been called, "The Twisted Mind".

I don't think game theory is based on that premise necessarily. It's more just a calculation of trade-offs. What I was trying to say is that we would be better off with Martial instead of Toby, and United would be better off with Toby instead of Martial. Both sides would benefit in the absolute sense. But because we are competing with Man United, both clubs are worried about the relative benefit (ie, does the deal benefit us more than them, or vice versa). Inevitably, one side will gain greater relative benefit. But that shouldn't prevent the deal from happening because we should be a lot more concerned with how we do relative to the other 18 clubs in the league than just how it affects us relative to one other club.

Plus I would say that a stronger league is better for both United and Spurs because it increases publicity.

 

[Hazelton]

Probably better to continue in the martial thread, but is he the next step? Is he that much better than what we've got? If it was bale i'd be behind it.

Good call mate, forgot what thread we were in...

I totally understand that, Bale would be the ideal addition to this team. As for Martial, I can't honestly answer any of those questions. He's not guaranteed to come in and set the league alight, but I like what I've seen and I'd love to see what he could do if he were to be unleashed for us.

As much as I'd love a top, top player to come in, I think Martial, Pulisic etc are the best we can hope to sign at this stage. The main reason why I'd be more inclined to pick Martial is because of Poch's continued interest in him. It'd just be nice if we could give him his first choice and see what he can do with him, I guess.

 

[dtxspurs]

Is this the year of the 100 page curse @tiger666 ??? Martial, Bale, Grealish and whatever the hell is going on there?

 

[Indacupfortottenham]

Suprised so many on here seem to rate Martial so highly!

Even more suprised some think he would walk into the team ahead of Eriksen, Dele and Sonny! Those three are easily worth north of £300 mil and would be out of our price range if they were at other clubs right now.

 

[pauljonah]

The way I see it is that now that he's been given the green light to leave that's a very good development.

Understandably Utd don't want to sell to a prem rival but IMO the kicker in all of this is Toby Alderweireld and it gives us an edge. Not concerned by Chelsea, they've got nothing to offer Utd like we have in Toby (unless they overpaid) but the player would likely choose us over them anyway - love being able to say that now.

We've been holding out on Utd with regards to Toby's valuation (75m I believe) but now that Martial is allowed to leave I could see us working out an agreement which sees us sell Toby for a lower fee as long as they will allow Martial to come to us. The issue is that I don't think they budge on their valuation of Martial.

If we're willing to do it then I could see it playing out that we drop Toby's valuation down closer to 60m and allow him to go to Utd but we still have to pay close to 70m for Martial. When all is said and done you're getting Martial for 10m which is a digustingly good bargain.

Seeing Toby in red will suck but he's 29, injury prone and we already have Sanchez in his place and that kid is gonna be world class.

To me this is an absolute no brainer.

Now Barcelona have Malcolm they can offer Willian for the services of Martial

 

[tiger666]

Suprised so many on here seem to rate Martial so highly!

He scored 18 goals with 10 assists in his first season in England. Even being used badly last season by Mourinho he had the best goals per minute ratio at United. His stats are better than than any of the other wide forwards we're supposedly in for. There's obviously a good player in there.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

He scored 18 goals with 10 assists in his first season in England. Even being used badly last season by Mourinho he had the best goals per minute ratio at United. His stats are better than than any of the other wide forwards we're supposedly in for. There's obviously a good player in there.

He's very obviously a very gifted player too - look at Rooney's comments this morning.

There's a potentially brilliant player there, certainly with a much higher ceiling than Zaha, but he needs managing. That's the one area where we know Poch excels

 

[Indacupfortottenham]

He scored 18 goals with 10 assists in his first season in England. Even being used badly last season by Mourinho he had the best goals per minute ratio at United. His stats are better than than any of the other wide forwards we're supposedly in for. There's obviously a good player in there.

He joined utd in 2015 and has scored 24 goals for them.
Good player but no better than what we already have. - Don’t think he has blistering pace either, seen times where he has been shown down the line and been very ineffective.