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Hot football transfer gossip: Chelsea and Man City wanted ‘new Ronaldo’ Martial

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That £36m Manchester United paid for previously unheralded teenager Anthony Martial looks like more and more of a snip each day, despite him not yet having kicked a ball in English football. The latest story explaining the 19-year-old Frenchman’s eye-catching price tag, which appears in the Daily Mail but could have been sanctioned by the Old Trafford spin machine, states that United splashed out £36m in order to beat off competition from Chelsea, Man City, Barcelona and PSG.

According to the Mail’s “club source”, all those clubs wanted to buy Martial “next season”. It doesn’t say how much the other clubs were prepared to pay - maybe it was £20m, maybe it was £2m - but we do know that United’s mega-bid blew them out of the water in spectacular style. This presumably allowed Ed Woodward to gain some revenge over Chelsea, who were forced to settle with just Pedro (for £15m less than Martial).

If beating Chelsea and Barcelona wasn’t enough, the Mail’s “source” also compares Martial to Cristiano Ronaldo, who it says United also paid a “premium” for to stop other clubs getting him. So, in a nutshell, £36m for Martial, £12.24m for Ronaldo: they’re the same.

Except it has since emerged that Martial that will cost substantially more than £36m, especially if he turns out to be anywhere near as good as Ronaldo. The Sun reports that United will have to pay Monaco an extra £7.2m if Martial scores 25 goals in the next four years. You don’t have to be a maths genius to work out that means he needs to score about six goals a season - the same as Jason Puncheon, for example - to trigger the clause. In total, United could end up paying £57.6m for Martial. But at least Chelsea didn’t get him.

Speaking of Pedro, the former Barcelona forward has once again criticised Louis van Gaal’s treatment of his ex-team-mate Victor Valdes, but has said that had nothing to do with him rejecting Man Utd, reports the Express.

Charlie Austin, who was linked with United and everyone else before failing to land a move in the transfer window, has told The Independent he preferred to stay at QPR and only wanted to move to “an established Premier League club”.

However, according to Get West London, the striker is asking for a 100 per cent pay rise at Loftus Road, along with a buyout clause if Rangers fail to get promoted.

Another striker doing a decent job of pretending he never wanted to move to the Premier League is Senegal frontman Moussa Sow, who has claimed he turned down deadline-day moves to West Ham and Sunderland so he could sign for Qatari club Al Ahli. Hmm.

@darlingkevin