Manchester United have benefitted from their own academy plentiful times but they aren't the only side producing elite talent.
Just ask AS Monaco who have nurtured, as well as produced, some unbelievable talent in the last ten years. In recent times, Aurelien Tchouemeni and Benoit Badiashile spring to mind. Further back, Emmanuel Pettit, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet, and even Lilian Thuram have emerged from the blissful south of France.
Today's focal point comes as part of a team that included Fabinho and Kylian Mbappe – and after an exciting Premier League move, his ceiling looked never-ending. Once a Golden Boy recipient, now a piece of Premier League deadwood – Anthony Martial's potential has been relatively unfulfilled.
How much did Manchester United pay for Anthony Martial?
After fantastic showings for Monaco in both Ligue 1 and the Champions League – Manchester United put £36m down for the winger-stroke-forward Anthony Martial in September 2015.
The 19-year-old had a break-out season in 2014/15 as Les Rouge et Blanc finished third in the league, and ended a Champions League run at the Quarter-Final stage.
In that break-out season, Martial was top-scorer ahead of Bernardo Silva with 12 goals in all competitions and swiftly moved on as Monaco charged a, rumoured to be ever-rising, £36m four-year-contract with the option for an extra year.
His transfer was the highest price paid for a teenager at the time, comfortably beating United the previous year when they signed Luke Shaw for £27m.
How much is Anthony Martial worth now?
On signing Martial, Louis van Gaal reflected the club's enthusiasm. Despite believing the price was "ridiculous", it was clear Martial was a signing for United's future with the Dutchman saying in 2015:
"The crazy world of football is that there is a market and a market price. We cannot have any influence on that price. I have said to Ed [Woodward], he is the best of his age, and we need a striker in the future. So we can wait a year and then he is £10m more expensive, but now we can build him up and at the right time he can enter the game.”
Following Martial's burst onto the scene in that excellent 2014/15 season, expectations were high and at first, the youngster had the perfect start.
A superb goal at bitter North-West rivals Liverpool that had Martin Tyler in tatters, looked to kick off a Manchester United romance that could span years.
However, this would be one of few real high points as Martial's form faltered. Multiple injuries within a United team that drifted through post-Ferguson mediocrity, Martial's £36m – which rose to £44.7m – has continuously been brought into question. To put it briefly, Martial looked to prove an excess on a number of occasions.
As Between The Lines analysed in 2021, before an eventual loan to Sevilla, Martial's United spell really had its ups and downs.
Consistency struggled under Van Gaal and was accelerated by Mourinho's addition of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2016. Indeed, in the 2016/17 season, he scored just four times in the league.
When he did look to get a chance, Marcus Rashford of course emerged. There was a resurgence under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – for whom he scored 35 goals – yet Martial has looked to be a mismatch in Manchester. Indeed, for all of the hype, he found the just twice in 2021/22 and this season, has only netted once in nine outings.
After a 2022 loan that was bit-part at best, and drifting away under Ralf Ragnick and now Eric Ten Hag – Martial's value has dropped from that ridiculous £44.7m and now sits at just £13m, as per Football Transfers' expected value mode. Evidently, the player seems to suck away £250k's worth of wages every week.