Spurs tracking mentally unfocused Martial

TRANSFER TALK

It is the Daily Mirror again and they believe we are still trying to sign Anthony Martial which seems highly unlikely given his current £95,000-a-week wages, as revealed by his ex-girlfriend [Martial shows signing youngsters can be fraught with danger].

We were certainly interested in him at Monaco and Daniel Levy flew to meet his opposite number. We were strongly linked and were reported as having tried hard to sign him, but in the end, he went for a ridiculous amount to Manchester United, although with the mammoth amount of add-ons included to take the figure to £57.6 million not having been activated yet, his true cost was £36 million according to ESPN.

The 21-year-old (22 in December) has changed according to his ex and seems to be caught up in enjoying life off the field. Echoes of David Bentley and Giovanni dos Santos, both of those should make us wary of Martial's apparent immaturity.

How will he develop, will he snap out of it and concentrate on improving his football or not? You have to answer that question before you can buy him and who knows the answer to that unless they know what to look for?

Signing him then is fraught with danger and his fee will mean a massive gamble, which is not the way to conduct transfer business unless you have deep pockets. He will not want to take a reduction in wage so we would have to fork out a large sum for a player who can't get into a team below us in the table and doesn't seem focussed on his football, a fact commented on by his manager Jose Mourinho.

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