Who is Manchester United’s new striker Anthony Martial?

Hot prospect.

There was a general sense of surprise when word filtered out on Sunday evening that Manchester United were preparing a fairly sizeable bid for Monaco's 19-year-old striker Anthony Martial. In fact, Martial was one of the few strikers in world football who hasn't been linked with a move to Old Trafford this summer. And while many suspected that Louis van Gaal would make a late swoop to beef up his frontline, nobody, it would seem, was ITK quite enough to claim that Martial would be a target. So who is the new United striker? Claudio Ranieri signed him for Monaco from Lyon for €5m in 2013. It was a huge sum for a 17-year-old. But Ranieri wasn't always enamoured with Martial, as this quote suggests:

"He is a great young player with a bright future, but he must change his state of mind. Sometimes the French mentality is ok, today I played well, tomorrow who knows?' No, you must work hard every day."

He rose to prominence in France when he was called off the bench to replace a mis-firing Radamel Falcao (sound familiar?) at Nantes. It was a move that suggested Falcao's time at the club would be coming to an end. He scored nine league goals in 35 games last season. He can finish, at least in training sessions. https://twitter.com/AS_Monaco/status/618336954413883392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw He was been called into the French squad for their upcoming friendlies against Portugal and Serbia. Here are his all important Football Manager stats. French newspaper l'Equipe reckon the transfer fee is considerably north of the £36m that is being widely reported. And while Martial's name came out of nowhere and surprised many, it seems that he is a player United, and Louis van Gaal, have tracked for some time. https://twitter.com/StuMathiesonMEN/status/638323473295798272 https://twitter.com/StuMathiesonMEN/status/638326684333305859 https://twitter.com/StuMathiesonMEN/status/638328484834766848 Tor-Kristian Karlsen, who worked as a scout for Monaco, still feels that Martial's career could go either way. https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638289255593287680 https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638289383309840385 https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638289582866497536 https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638290108001701888 https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638290501838503936 https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638290909470302208 https://twitter.com/karlsentk/status/638291314098880512