Gary Neville believes Manchester United are ‘frightened to death’ of seeing Anthony Martial leave and fulfil his potential elsewhere.

Martial has been a major disappointment at United since arriving in 2015, hampered in part by a number of fitness issues. The French international has shown glimpses of the quality he possessed but failed to convert that into a consistent run of form.

Having only scored 19 goals since September 2020 and been absent for large portions, Martial looks set to be one of several exits at United next summer. The 28-year-old was handed a rare start in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle but was abysmal before being hooked on the hour mark.

“They were frightened to death of him going somewhere and doing something,” Neville told Stick To Football. “They were frightened to death because he’s just got that little bit of talent.

“Every manager has had the same problem with him. They’ve all been like ‘is he gonna come and hurt us?’ That’s when you just… argh.”

Martial’s contract expires in June and the club are considering against activating an option to extend it for a further 12 months. There is little to gain in protecting the striker’s value and getting his wages off the books could be deemed as the preferable outcome.

The former Monaco man, who joined United for a fee potentially rising to £58million in 2015, spent half a season on loan at Sevilla in 2022 but scored just one goal in 15 appearances.

He was up for sale in the summer but no team came in with an acceptable offer. Erik ten Hag spent £72million on Rasmus Hojlund and is keen to reinforce his attacking options again over the next two windows.