GRAEME SOUNESS: Why Anthony Martial, who has joined AEK Athens aged 28, is the best example of where Man United have gone wrong

I noted this week that Anthony Martial has joined AEK Athens in Greece. Maybe, even at 28, that is his level.

In his nine seasons at Manchester United, no player better captured the club’s malaise. He is the best example of where they have gone wrong.

I said about four years ago, entering a new season, that it had to be Martial’s last-chance saloon. I cannot believe it was only this summer that he finally left the club.

Martial is one of those players you would turn up and watch him in training and think, ‘What a player’.

But talk to any professional, we’ve all been at clubs with great Monday-to-Friday players. On a Saturday, they go missing. He was the epitome of that. He didn’t have the eye of the tiger, it was not in him. He would flatter to deceive.

I said four years ago that he should have left – he spent nine seasons in total at the club

No player has symbolised the decline of Erik ten Hag’s side more than the French forward

It was as plain as the nose on the end of your face that he wasn’t a Manchester United player and that was obvious after a couple of seasons. He just could not deal with playing for a big club like United, where every game is must-win.

There was no doubting his ability. He had everything to be a top player, but he just became a liability in the end. You go from thinking, on his first day, ‘What a player he could be’, to now, ‘What a player he could have been’.

But Manchester United can do that to players — it takes a certain type of mental resilience to succeed. It goes back to when I was a player. We were the top team at Liverpool, but could never understand why they got so much publicity. They are the biggest club, arguably, in the world. Success is exaggerated and criticism is magnified and that is the price of playing there. You are put on a pedestal.

Some players never fully achieve their potential because they’re given so much, so soon. They start to believe what people are saying about them. When I was a player, there was always a new George Best, Bobby Charlton or Denis Law, and a lot of these boys never went on to achieve much.

Martial won a lot of those plaudits early on, too. He just never had it in him to make the most of his talent.

Martial won a lot of his plaudits early on in his United career, but he never had it in him to make the most of his talent

Manchester United can do that to players – it takes a type of mental resilience to succeed

Where is the sense of occasion?

I sat down to watch the Champions League this week and, within 20 minutes, I was flicking the channel. I thought: ‘Does this really matter? Is it even worth me watching the early games?’

Where is the jeopardy? Where is the sense of occasion?

Liverpool played Milan at the San Siro and Arsenal were playing the Europa League winners, Atalanta, in Italy. Did it really matter if they won, drew or lost, given the forgiving nature of the new format? No. If you don’t win, you get another chance, and another one after that.

I have serious reservations about this version of the competition. For me, it is a blatant money-making exercise. It is UEFA — and clubs — being greedy. More games, less quality.

I really like watching Arsenal, but I couldn’t get engaged in their game. I couldn’t shake that subconscious feeling of the outcome being inconsequential. Because we all know what will happen when push comes to shove, the big teams will turn up and go through. How can they not when only 12 of the 36 teams are eliminated at the league stage?

When I played in the European Cup, it was champions versus champions. The margins were so fine right from the off, a two-legged knockout. Every kick mattered. It was the best against the best, too. Now, it’s the runners-up to the runners-up to the runners-up who are getting in. It is a water-downed version and it is why the Champions League was created in the first place, so that the big clubs wouldn’t be eliminated by having one bad night.

I won the European Cup three times with Liverpool, but we also went out twice in the first round. Once to Nottingham Forest — who did a job on us — and the following year to Dinamo Tbilisi, who were a good team but one we should have beaten. There were no second chances.

You just can’t have matches — in the competition that is meant to be the pinnacle of the club game — that don’t really matter. Come the end of the season, I think UEFA will have to take a good look at this. They will no doubt try to spin it and say it’s all been a huge success. But you can only kid people for so long.

I am not getting on with the new Champions League format – where is the jeopardy and sense of occasion?

Liverpool played in Milan and Arsenal were taking on the Europa League winners, yet it did not matter if they won

I would imagine that the public will have an opinion that could be decisive, if they vote with their feet. You’re not going to pay premium prices for tickets if you are sat in the stadium and you feel there is nothing really at stake. I remember going to watch a game once at the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin and there was nothing riding on it. There were 12,000 people in a 70-000-capacity stadium. That’s the great danger. 

You can dress these games up all you want, but if they’re meaningless, people will stop turning up. And this is before we get to the players. They are already complaining about too many games, and that is only going to intensify as the season goes on. 

Manchester City‘s Rodri will not be alone in thinking about players going on strike, as he revealed they could this week. Whether or not others are prepared to express their thoughts like he did remains to be seen. But if you follow the trail, it is clubs trying to monetise every single bit of their business at the expense of players and supporters.

Now, the debate about whether players should be complaining about too many games is another matter. Did I ever feel tired? No. A lot of it is psychological. If you’re on a bad run of results, you start to feel sorry for yourself. When you have managers talking about too many games, that also compounds the problem. I played 60-odd games a season a couple of times in my career, but that means you’ve been successful. I was motivated and energised by the chase for trophies.

Where I perhaps do have sympathy is that all of our games mattered, and this brings me back to the feeling I had this week of being a little disillusioned watching the Champions League in its new, expanded format.

There will be games I want to watch when the next set of fixtures comes around, but right now I can’t tell you what they are. There’s no anticipation, no excitement. And finally, just think of the name for one second… the Champions League. It’s not the Champions League! Just call it the Midweek European Super League! Saying that, what I saw this week wasn’t that super at all.

It remains to be seen whether other players will be prepared to express their thought over the idea of a strike

Arne Slot, meanwhile, is looking to bounce back from defeat by Nottingham Forest on Saturday

Don’t worry about Liverpool yet – they showed they have the ability to perform out in Milan

Don’t worry about Reds

Liverpool lost at home to Nottingham Forest last weekend, but I wouldn’t be concerned about that at all.

It was a bad day and a fabulous strike by Callum Hudson-Odoi to win it and to lose after being so fabulous at Manchester United would have hurt.

But they did what good teams do — parked it and went and won at Milan on Tuesday. I still believe they’ve got a very good season ahead of them. 

I called for Arsenal to show us what they were made of ahead of the north London derby and they certainly did that. They were extremely well organised, very aggressive and looked like a difficult team to play against. Their mental attitude is what will please manager Mikel Arteta more than anything.

They play at Manchester City tomorrow and will fancy it. If any defence can deal with Erling Haaland, it’s Arsenal’s.

It was brave to replace Aaron Ramsdale with David Raya, but there is no doubt he is a level up. You don’t win big trophies unless you have a top keeper.