Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says Anthony Martial is on his last chance to prove his worth against Wigan in the FA Cup
The Frenchman needs to produce something special to convince the Special One he deserves to be in his team
ANTHONY MARTIAL is drinking in the last chance saloon.
Whether it will be champagne or the bitter taste of failure is down to the young Frenchman, according to Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho.
Martial, 21, had reason for a glass of bubbly last season as he finished the club’s top scorer with 17 goals and took home an FA Cup winner’s medal.
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But there has not been so much for him to celebrate this campaign as he has completely lost his way and been axed from the first team.
As reported in SunSport on Thursday, Mourinho believes the £36million forward is missing a great chance to make the wide left position his own.
And he will not be impressed by more murmurings from the player’s camp of dissatisfaction with the boss.
Mourinho has already said publicly it is time he ignored his agent and started listening to him if he wants to make it at Old Trafford.
The boss does not care if he puts noses out of joint. It is what happens on the pitch that is all important to him.
And Martial needs to produce, starting with tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth-round tie with Wigan at Old Trafford.
Mourinho said: “He will play on Sunday and, if he plays magnificently, he will play against Hull the next match. It’s simple.”
Asked how the player has taken being left out the squad, Mourinho said: “I don’t know. I don’t speak with the players about how they take it.”
When it comes to Mourinho’s decisions, it is clearly a case of take it or leave it.
He has enough options in the wide areas behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic, even with Memphis Depay having gone.
Martial at his best will be in there but Marcus Rashford, for one, deserves a chance for the way he has been playing.
Rashford will most likely get an opportunity as the lone frontman tomorrow, with Mourinho rotating his team as he battles on four fronts.
Having appeared to take their opponents lightly in Thursday’s EFL Cup semi-final defeat at Hull, United will not be making the same mistake tomorrow.
And Mourinho knows Wigan boss Warren Joyce, who spent eight years coaching United’s reserves, will have his team well prepared for their Old Trafford test.
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The United chief said: “I worked with him for just a few months but that was enough to know he’s a very nice man, a very passionate football man.
“He took the risk, he accepted the challenge. He left a good situation in our club to try what we call ‘men’s football’ and, for sure, he will come with a team that’s very aggressive and well organised defensively.
“The manager is also emotional. He knows us, he will come with special motivation to play against his old club.
“They will bring lots of fans, too, so the match is going to be difficult.”
Joyce was finally prised from Old Trafford when the Latics came calling in November.
And he revealed he only stayed at United for so long out of loyalty to former boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Joyce, who had turned down approaches from Blackburn and Hull, said: “I tried explaining this a few times to several chief executives or agents who were working for them and they would laugh and say, ‘It would be easier getting Pep Guardiola to come and speak than you!’.
“They were kind of surprised there was that principle involved in football nowadays.
“You have your own standards and principles.
“There’s no way that when someone like Sir Alex asks you to do that job, you can say on the one hand that you want to develop and then jump ship when X, Y and Z gets offered to you.”
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