Top 10 Manchester United signings of the decade

4. Anthony Martial

When Anthony Martial was signed by Louis van Gaal from AS Monaco for £36m at the start of the 2015/16 season and he became the costliest teenager in the world at that time. If there were doubts about whether the Frenchman was worth such an astronomical sum, they were squashed by the end of the season. Martial found the back of the net 17 times in 49 appearances, including 11 in 31 in the Premier League.

The Frenchman started playing football at CO Les Ulis and transferred to Lyon as a 14-year-old in 2009. After 4 years with Les Gones, he moved on to Monaco in the summer of 2013 and soon attracted attention from clubs around Europe, before Manchester United brought him to Old Trafford.

After his breakthrough debut season, Martial was expected to hit a higher gear the following year. Unfortunately, the arrival of Jose Mourinho affected his development, and Martial failed to fulfil his early promise. He managed to score just 19 goals in 87 appearances over 2 seasons under the Portuguese and was still struggling by the time Mourinho left the club at the end of last year.

However, the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was like a shot in the arm for the Frenchman, who regained his old form and found his goal scoring boots again at the turn of this year.

The Norwegian showed further belief in his young striker when he allowed Romelu Lukaku to leave and reinstated Martial as the No. 9 in the team. The Frenchman has been on fine form since donning his old shirt and has already scored 10 goals from 19 appearances in all competitions this season. Despite all the questionable transfers carried out under van Gaal’s reign, United fans will certainly be ever indebted to the Dutchman for giving them Martial.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over seven years at Sportskeeda. He has written more than 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 20 million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Sai Teja