AC Milan reportedly made a late bid to sign Anthony Martial from Man Utd on Thursday, but they saw their approach snubbed by the Red Devils.
The transfer window remains open for sides in Italy until next Friday, but in terms of signing players, things came to a halt for English clubs this week.
Calciomercato claim that Milan made a late attempt to secure a deal for the French forward based on an initial loan deal with an option to buy. However, it’s added United weren’t interested in a departure and so the Italian giants will be forced to look elsewhere.
From Milan’s perspective, it’s easy to see why Martial emerged as a target given that they desperately lack any real pace in the wide positions with both Suso and Hakan Calhanoglu offering technical quality and creativity, but not a great deal of movement.
With that in mind, Martial could have been an ideal solution to their problem.
Nevertheless, despite struggling to establish himself as a permanent fixture in Jose Mourinho’s starting line-up last season, he did score 11 goals and provide nine assists in 45 outings albeit with most appearances coming off the bench, it seems as though the 22-year-old remains a key part of his plans moving forward.
As per The Guardian, there have been ongoing question marks over his relationship with Mourinho, but it’s seemingly not serious enough to warrant the Portuguese tactician offloading him.
Another explanation could be that given it was too late for Man Utd to delve into the market to sign a replacement, it made sense for them to rebuff any interest in Martial as it would arguably have left them light in attack until January if they had no time to fill the void.
Martial will now look to prove his worth at Old Trafford, while Milan have a week to identify a new target to satisfy their needs.