Man Utd avoided £14.4m transfer payment due to Anthony Martial's woeful form

Manchester United managed to avoid shirking out an extra £14.4m transfer payment for Anthony Martial.

The French forward signed for the Red Devils in 2015 for a fee of £57.6 million, but his time at Old Trafford has been hampered by injury.

The 28-year-old has scored two goals in 18 appearances across all competitions this season and started United's latest 1-0 defeat to Newcastle in the league.

During the game, Erik ten Hag could be shown exchanging words with Martial after he half-heartedly tracked the run of Fabian Schar.

The United boss subsequently claimed his touchline antics were aimed at the entire team as opposed to the striker.

However, Martial's struggles in front of goal has saved the Premier League side some cash.

That is because there are two clauses attached to Martial's contract at Old Trafford that are still yet to be activated.

A series of performance-related bonus clauses were inserted into his initial four-year deal.

"The price for Martial is £57.6million," former Monaco vice president Vasilyev said at the time.

"But take into account this sum includes bonuses, which are very realistic."

The bonuses totalled £21.6 million, made up of three separate clauses. But fast forward eight years and only one has been activated.

If Martial hit 25 league goals for United between 2015 and 2019, United had to pay an extra £7.2 million to Monaco.

The forward netted on his debut and plundered a further 10 goals during that Premier League season.

The goals soon dried up and it wasn't until October 2018 when he triggered the clause after scoring the equaliser in a 3-2 win over Newcastle.

Yet the other two have still not been triggered. Monaco would receive another £7.2 million payment if Martial was capped 25 times for France while playing for United.

However, he's not been a regular within Les Bleus squad and had only played 18 times for his country when 2019 rolled round.

And last but not least, Monaco, rather ambitiously, included a 'Ballon d'Or clause' in Martial's contract as they clearly felt he had the capacity to be the best player in the world.

If he won the coveted prize by 2019, United would be required to fork out a further £7.2 million.

But while he's a Golden Boy winner, Martial has never been in contention for the Ballon d'Or.

Overall, the 26-year-old has made 269 appearances for United, scoring 79 times.

Topics: Manchester United, Football, Premier League, Anthony Martial, Erik Ten Hag

Joe Adams

Joe is a Journalist for SPORTbible with a primary focus on football. He has previously covered a number of other sports including boxing, rugby and F1. Wishes he was born left-footed.

@joeadamsjourno