Anthony Martial tells Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick he wants to leave Old Trafford

The France international has become a fringe figure at Old Trafford, making just two Premier League starts this season and only four in all competitions.

Martial’s agent Philippe Lamboley told Sky Sports News earlier this month that he wants to depart in search of regular game-time. His preference is to join La Liga side Sevilla, while Barcelona and Juventus are also keen on signing the 26-year-old on an initial loan deal.

“We spoke at length on Wednesday,” said interim United manager Ralf Rangnick, revealing Martial’s desire to quit Old Trafford.

“He explained to me he’s been at Manchester United now for the last seven years and he feels it’s the right time for a change, to go somewhere else.

“I think in a way this is understandable, I could follow his thoughts but on the other hand, it’s also important to see the situation of the club.

“We have Covid times, we have three competitions in which we still have high ambitions and want to be as successful as we can be.”

Martial became the world’s most expensive teenage footballer when United signed him from Monaco in September 2015. The £36m fee, potentially rising to £58m, made him United’s third most expensive signing at the time after Angel Di Maria and Juan Mata.

Martial made a memorable debut, coming off the bench to score a superb solo goal against Liverpool, and has gone on to score 79 goals in 268 appearances. But he has fallen down the pecking order of United forwards following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Jadon Sancho and the emergence of Mason Greenwood.

Rangnick confirmed no offer has yet been made for Martial ahead of the January transfer window and said he could stay at United.

He said: “I told him listen, as long as there is no club showing interest in him, and it should not only be in the interest of the player it should also be in the interest of the club.

“So far, as far as I know, there has been no offer from any other club and as long as this is the case he will stay.”

Ralf Rangnick’s revolution at Manchester United is barely a month old yet his fingerprints can already be seen wherever you look at the club.

Two Premier League matches and a week of training may have fallen victim to a coronavirus outbreak, but not a second has been wasted in the hands of Rangnick. Areas of improvement have been pinpointed; swift and decisive decisions have followed.

One of Rangnick’s first acts was to bring a sports psychologist to Old Trafford, with Sascha Lense, a close confidant during his tenure at RB Leipzig, joining United’s backroom staff.

Lense’s appointment threw up a number of pertinent questions, from the benefits of employing a sports psychologist, and the overall objective, to the willingness or reluctance of players to get involved.

But above all else, the burning question is why wasn’t a sports psychologist – a position of unquantifiable importance to Rangnick and one he predicts will be commonplace across all sports in the near future – in situ at Manchester United in the first place?