Anthony Martial rejected a move to Newcastle in January, and it’s a decision he probably regrets right now.
The Magpies were still battling relegation at the start of the year, and looked like one of the favourites to drop down to the Championship.
That put a lot of players off a move to St James’ Park, who were clearly unwilling to risk their reputation and possibly suffer the drop.
In the end, Newcastle didn’t go down. In fact, we survived with ease.
The January recruits came in and played a huge role in achieving safety, and this Newcastle squad will have a special place in Toon history.
So will the players who turned us down in January, which brings us back to Martial.
Martial rejected Newcastle and joined Sevilla instead
The Frenchman was one of 4352464082 players linked with Newcastle in January. He wasn’t featuring much for Manchester United and looked set to leave Old Trafford.
A move to St James’ Park would have been a good opportunity for Martial, but he said no.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Newcastle launched a loan bid for the 26-year-old, but he turned it down in favour of a move abroad.
He would instead join Sevilla on loan until the end of the season.
La Liga loan was a disaster
When Martial arrived in Spain, Sevilla were chasing the La Liga title and had Europa League aspirations.
By the end of the campaign they’d finished in fourth, 16 points shy of league winners Real Madrid. They also let themselves down in Europe, falling to West Ham in the Europa League Round of 16.
Martial’s Sevilla loan didn’t end in glory, nor did it inspire an upturn in fortunes. In fact, he was pretty rotten in a white shirt.
The France international made 12 appearances in all competitions for Sevilla, but only provided two goal contributions. He didn’t score a single league goal, with his only strike coming in a Europa League win over Dinamo Zagreb.
In the final five games of the season, Martial appeared in the squad just once and played a grand total of 23 minutes.
The move was an absolute disaster, and suggests Newcastle got away with one here.
Martial failed to take the huge opportunity given to him at Sevilla, and it feels likely that the same would have happened at St James’ Park.
Eddie Howe made a point of signing the right characters in January. It doesn’t sound like Martial would have fallen in to that bracket.
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