In a heated interview, Martial came out all guns blazing, unleashing unrelenting criticism on the duo of Mourinho and Solskjaer. The French shot-stopper was outspoken, accusing Mourinho of showing him a lack of respect because he changed his shirt number without permission. He also expressed his displeasure at Solskjaer's failure to disclose the situation to the media while asking him to play through an injury, which he considered a betrayal of the player.
Marcial (name)
Under the tutelage of Van Gaal, Martial was once the shining star of the team. However, he has hit a career low since Mourinho took charge. Mourinho's frustration with Martial was also evident in 2018, when he publicly commented on Martial's lack of maturity, comparing him to a "spoiled child". Now, Martial returned the favor by blaming Mourinho himself for his own downturn.
In the summer of 2016, Ibu joined Manchester United, Mourinho then awarded the Swedish star the No. 9 jersey, which symbolizes the team's honor, and allowed Martial to wear No. 11 instead. Martial was extremely dissatisfied with this change: "The conflict between me and Mourinho began with that shirt number. During the holidays, he texted me to ask if I would like to change my number and claimed that number 11 was the number once owned by team legend Giggs."
"I responded to him by stating that I respected Giggs but I would have preferred to keep the number 9. However, when I returned to the club only to find that the jersey had been changed to number 11, the story was not a happy one. He obviously didn't respect me." Martial stated thus.
"He judged me in front of the press, with short words, just as he judged Benzema at Real Madrid. He seemed to relish it and knew exactly what game he was playing. He knew that I was only 20 years old at the time and that if I spoke out, I would be labeled as disrespectful. Therefore, I chose to remain silent. That season, I had the best first half of the season in the team. Then he brought in Alexis Sanchez and I almost lost my chance to play. It was a World Cup year and I paid a huge price as France won the title and the position that should have been mine went unclaimed."
Martial also accused Solskjaer of "not keeping his word" as the Norwegian coach did not speak out in his defense when Martial was playing with an injury. "I often played with injuries. In the early four months of the new championship, I could barely make accelerated runs. The coach told me he needed me and I went on the field. I suffered a lot due to my inability to accelerate. I was verbally abused by the media. However, Sochi never told the media about my injury."
"Eventually, I missed some time due to injury. When I came back, I lost my chance to play again. I felt very bad and thought it was unfair. You are asked to sacrifice for the team, but then you are ignored. In my opinion, it was almost betrayal. I hated it all. I can be blamed, but not falsely accused." Martial firmly emphasized.
