After a prolonged period of poor form, last month saw Manchester United allow winger Anthony Martial to join Spanish side Sevilla on loan until the end of the season.
Martial, 26, has been with the Red Devils since he joined from French side Monaco in 2015 in a deal worth a whopping £54m.
Despite kicking off his Old Trafford career with a debut goal against arch-rivals Liverpool, the French attacker has always struggled for consistent form.
Although shown immense loyalty by former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Martial’s time under interim boss Ralf Rangnick saw him fall further out of favour and was consequently forced to sound out a temporary switch.
Having so far featured in three matches for his new side, Martial has started well and already has a goal and an assist to his name, which is one more direct goal contribution than the 26-year-old managed in the Premier League throughout the whole of the first half of the season.
Speaking to Marca recently about Martial’s arrival at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium, midfielder Joan Jordan suggested that the French forward may be benefiting from receiving an arm around his shoulder.
“Anthony, I spoke with my friend and brother Eric Bailly, before he arrived,” Jordan said. “He spoke well to me, that he needed affection and to feel important.
“Good. Very happy for the two incorporations (Martial and Jesus Corona), which give us a leap in quality and hopefully at the end of the year these two pieces plus the ones we add, like (Eric) Lamela or Suso and almost all of us are here, and we can push as a team.”
Going on to address his side’s current form which sees them sit fifth in La Liga table, something Martial can help improve, Jordan said: “I think it has been many years since Sevilla was in this situation. And for years the Big Three (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico) did not separate.
“There is a lot left. Let’s see what happens. We are very excited to do something important this year, we will see where our performance takes us but without doing the math because those are done on May 20.
“If we continue like this, we’ll see what happens.”
More must-reads: