Home Manchester United Jordan explains how Man Utd can ‘cut toxicity off at the knees’
Date published: Monday 17th January 2022 8:59 – Will Ford
Simon Jordan says Manchester United must find a buyer for Anthony Martial, among others, to stop “toxicity” in the dressing room.
Martial has reportedly turned down offers from Tottenham and Newcastle having told United he wanted to leave in January.
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But the Frenchman refuted manager Ralf Rangnick’s claim that he had asked not to be in the squad to take on Aston Villa.
Speaking after the game at Villa Park, Rangnick said: “Yes, he [Martial] didn’t want to be in the squad.
“He would have been in the squad normally but he didn’t want to and that’s the reason why he was not travelling with us yesterday.”
But Martial took to Instagram to deny Rangnick’s claim: “I will never refuse to play a match for Man United.
“I’ve been here for seven years and I never disrespected and I never will disrespect the club and the fans.”
Despite Martial’s claims, Jordan believes United should prioritise getting rid of a player they don’t want, who doesn’t want to be there.
“I would suspect that Martial has expressed a view about what he thinks he should be entitled to, which the manager has chosen to characterise as a form of refusal,” Jordan said on talkSPORT.
“I think that people like Anthony Martial should never have been given a five year contract at Man United, and they should be driving him around to the first bidder in a cab, as long as its a decent level of money.
“The question was asked about Martial and of course [Ralf] Rangnick has chosen to give information out there, and chosen to show perhaps a side of Martial that people don’t see, or perhaps a side of Martial that he wants people to see.
“It may be a slight misrepresentation of smoke and mirrors there to make it look as worse as it possibly can.
“But they should just get on with selling the player, there’s a faction of players at Man United the club don’t want anymore.
“Despite the protestations of senior management, that myself and Jim spoke to a while ago at United, that there wasn’t a toxic dressing room, there are players that aren’t part of the framework at United.
“Martial is one of them, [Juan] Mata’s another, [Jesse] Lingard probably the other, they are going to have a whispering campaign, and that’s where the toxicity arguments come from, just cut it off at the knees, get rid of the player.”