As a way of inspiring a particular motivation in a player who is said to respond better to carrot than stick, returning the Manchester United No 9 shirt to Anthony Martial was a shrewd move by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.



Martial was known to be seriously disheartened when Zlatan Ibrahimovic swept into Old Trafford and seized that symbolic jersey for himself in July 2016, and it is not hard to imagine a brooding sense of longing as Romelu Lukaku wore it for the last two seasons.



It is true that after a debut season of 17 goals, Martial was ready to launch his AM9 brand — he had the logo stitched into his boots — and Ibrahimovic’s announcement on Instagram took the wind from those commercial sails. But more importantly, the switch pushed Martial to the side, both metaphorically and positionally. It told him he was secondary to a man with an ego the size of Sweden and also meant he now had to play left wing.



Gerard Bonneau, who scouted Martial for...