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Newcastle United's striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has been ranked higher than Manchester United’s £36million man Anthony Martial in Soccerex’s 20 best Under-21 prospects.

The Red Devils’ acquisition of Martial has resulted in some stinging criticism from pundits with another former Monaco star Thierry Henry describing the signing as a “massive gamble”.

Mitrovic has came under intense media scrutiny since making his debut against Southampton with a yellow card against the Saints just moments after entering the pitch after a foul on Matt Targett.

A clash with Neil Taylor at Swansea a week later came next followed by a red card for a studs-up foul on Francis Coquelin which was deemed dangerous play.

But despite the fiery start to his career an in-depth look into the Soccerex report says that Newcastle are shopping in the right area and bringing the right type of young players to the club.

Powered by the Football Value Index, and used by top clubs in the world to track talent, a blurb from the July report reads: “The Football Value Index by Prime Time Sport is a best in class player valuation

methodology, used by football clubs and the sport industry, to obtain an independent and accurate valuation of football players.”

The list of talent sees Mitrovic placed in 13th spot of the prestigious report - four places ahead of Martial, who Manchester United could eventually pay up to £58million for.

The study takes a host of factors into consideration including market value, media value, technical quality, national team appearances and games played.

Mitrovic was rated higher than not only Martial but also Everton’s John Stones, who Chelsea were prepared to pay £26million for this summer, Arsenal’s Calum Chambers and Liverpool duo Emre Can and Divock Origi.

Soccerex’s 20 best Under-21 prospects

1) Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)

2) Marquinos (PSG)

3) Memphis Depay (Manchester United)

4) Domenico Beradi (Sassuolo Calcio)

5) Jose Gimenez (Atletico Madrid)

6) Hakan Çalhanoğlu (Bayer 04 Leverkusen)

7) Mateo Kovačić (Real Madrid)

8) Jose Gaya (Valencia)

9) Luke Shaw (Manchester United)

10) Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao)

11) Kurt Zouma (Chelsea)

12) Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht)

13) ALEKSANDAR MITROVIC (Newcastle)

14) Talisca (Benfica)

15) Emre Can (Liverpool)

16) John Stones (Everton)

17) Anthony Martial (Manchester United)

18) Divock Origi (Liverpool)

19) Calum Chambers (Arsenal)

20) Hector Bellerin (Arsenal)