Manchester United have to get it right after getting it wrong with five striker signings

At around 4pm on December 17 2018, Manchester United informed patch reporters they had triggered the one-year extension in Anthony Martial's contract.

Two hours later, Martial's agent Philippe Lamboley told RMC in France: "I am very pessimistic about discussions going positively. They’ve already made several offers that come nowhere near to what we expect.”

At 9.45am the next morning, Jose Mourinho was sacked. Forty-four days later, Martial signed a minimum five-and-a-half year contract, with the option of an additional year.

Martial scored two more goals in the 2018-19 season and he tallied a career-best 23 in 2019-20. Since then, his seasonal goalscoring tally reads: seven, one, nine, two.

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This is a case study of why no other football club should not touch Ed Woodward with a bargepole. United have recruited five strikers in the five years that have elapsed since they backed a flaky player over the manager.

Martial was injured for almost the entirety of the summer transfer window and was unsellable. He has hitherto been unwell for the entirety of the winter transfer window and is thus unsellable.

Whatever the context behind Martial's four-week absence, it is not a flattering look for the player or club. The 28-year-old will cease to be a United player after June 30 if he is not sold this month.

United are marooned with Martial yet he is one of two senior out-and-out strikers, so they are reluctant to undermine him. It would partially account for Erik ten Hag's clunky phraseology last week that United are "talking with Anthony Martial".

Odion Ighalo and Wout Weghorst were signed on