Anthony Martial may not quite have been £50m down the drain for Manchester United in 2015 but he is gradually outgrowing his price tag at AEK Athens, who picked him up on a free transfer in the summer.
The Frenchman exploded onto the scene at Old Trafford, scoring a memorable debut goal against Liverpool, but is more of a slow burn for his new employers in Greece with one goal in four matches so far.
After sitting out the first three games of the season, he was eased into the team from the bench against United’s Thursday night opponents PAOK then Panserraikos, his minutes slowly increasing.
He marked his first start with a goal and a man of the match award, securing AEK a 1-0 win over Aris in the Greek Cup.
It’s his first goal in 339 days, his last coming while still a United player in a 3-0 triumph over Everton.
Less than a month later he played his last match in a United shirt as his Old Trafford career fizzled out through illness, injury and, ultimately, omission from Erik ten Hag’s plans.
AEK have played once more since their cup win, a 1-0 win at Atromitos in which Martial played the full 90 minutes for the first time.
As he has all season he operated from the left wing, but failed to make much of an impact either creatively or as a goal threat.
He has averaged 1.3 shots per game and is causing defenders problems on the ball, averaging 2 successful dribbles per game (stats taken from sofascore).
Overall, Martial is making a solid if unremarkable start to life in Greece, where he ended up after a summer of links with the likes of Atalanta, LOSC Lille and Flamengo.
Eventually he moved to the OPAP Arena, where he reportedly signed the biggest contract the Athens-based side have offered anyone in their history.
He lines up alongside fellow Premier League alumnus Erik Lamela, who used to play for Tottenham Hotspur.
Martial departed United as a free agent after nine years, during which he racked up 90 goals and 47 assists in 317 matches.
Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
