Manchester United icon Roy Keane has hit out at Anthony Martial and claimed that he is not the “answer” to the club’s striking issues if Cristiano Ronaldo does get his wish and leave Old Trafford this summer. The French forward has impressed in pre-season during the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s absence, but Keane believes the club will have to dip into the transfer market if the Portuguese striker does get a move to a Champions League club.
“You can’t let Ronaldo go out the door and think Martial’s the answer,” Keane told Sky Sports. “Martial isn’t the answer, he’s proven that. He’s had a good pre-season, big deal. They haven’t got enough options, that might change, from a footballing point of view you have to keep hold of Ronaldo you can’t just let him go when you haven’t got the backup behind it.
“I think it was a straight forward call for the manager [to leave Ronaldo on the bench against Brighton], as brilliant as Ronaldo is, he only got 45 minutes in pre-season I don’t care how well you look after yourself you need more than that over the course of pre-season. He’s looking at the players he’s got, Brighton at home, they fancy their chances to beat Brighton.
“There’s obviously issues in the background they need to look at that before the window closes. Today, from a footballing point of view, it was a straight forward call for the manager to make because of the lack of minutes he’s had, I watched him last week and he didn’t exactly put himself around so he certainly needs more minutes before you can trust him to into a Premier League match, the call was common sense really.”
Micah Richards joined Keane on the panel and agreed that it was the right decision for Erik ten Hag not to start Ronaldo on the opening day of the club’s season. “I think it’s the right call,” Richards said before being asked how the striker would take the news. “Not well, because you seen in a pre-season friendly he tried to undermine the manager when he was giving him instructions.
“It’s Ronaldo, they’ve got to make a decision on what’s going to happen. They either need to integrate him into the squad, Roy made a point before last week about him and if a player disrespects the manager you can rebuild that. We seen it with [Harry] Kane last season, this is Ronaldo, he scored 18 goals last season, it’s not as easy as saying let’s get away from Ronaldo especially when Martial, who’s been playing so well in pre-season, is not fit. It’s a difficult one.”
DON’T MISS
Man Utd have just seven players worth keeping under Erik ten Hag
Man Utd set price tag for Ronaldo to leave
Man Utd respond to claims De Jong doesn’t want to join
