Several English outlets have reported today that Manchester United have triggered a contract option to extend Anthony Martial’s deal with the club for one further year.
But the French media now brings a different version to the story, making it sound much more interesting than it did initially.
RMC claims that this option was activated two months ago in an unilateral way.
The reason why Manchester United were so discreet about it and haven’t made it official is that they can’t find a deal with the Frenchman for a long term contract, which would be of five years.
They quote Philippe Lamboley, Martial’s agent, saying he’s “very pessimistic about a positive outcome of the discussions”.
By using the clause, Man United now have one more year to continue with the negotiations, moving away all the clubs who were interested in getting a pre-agreement and signing the player for free in the summer.
RMC claims that this is exactly the same manoeuvre they’ve used with David De Gea, whose contract expiry date also went from 2019 to 2020. Meanwhile, there are negotiations for the renewals of Ander Herrera, Ashley Young and Juan Mata.
