Anthony Martial, Kieran McKenna and how a career trajectory is not a smooth diagonal line to the stars

Anthony Martial was once the future. Aged 19, he was football’s most expensive teenager. He scored on his Manchester United debut – against Liverpool, no less. The goal came at the Stretford End, Martial turning Martin Skrtel. Victory lifted Louis van Gaal’s side into second place in the Premier League. It was September 2015 and there was a lot of excitement around Anthony Martial.

Kieran McKenna was once the future. Aged 16, in 2002 he left his native Fermanagh for Tottenham Hotspur and a place in their academy. McKenna was a promising midfielder, a box-to-box type according to those who coached him in early days in Enniskillen and Ballinamallard.

Martial knew all about such attention. He had been spotted as a boy playing for Les Ulis, the club of Thierry Henry and Patrice Evra south of Paris. Martial’s coaches described a happy family, keen on education as well as football. Anthony, they said, was “very demanding”, “hated to lose”. At 12, he was invited to train with Manchester City.

McKenna was soon progressing at Spurs. He was through the youth team and into the reserves. By 18 was on the fringe of the first-team squad. In 2005 he was made captain of Northern Ireland’s under-19s at the European Championships by coach Mal Donaghy, once signed by Alex Ferguson at United. A tournament report has a McKenna being denied by German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

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In 2012, Martial was called up by France to play in the under-17 Euros. He was 16 and scored in the opening game. He would be capped through France’s age groups. Martial was at Lyon by then. The same year, a day after his 17th birthday, he was given a first-team debut by coach Remi Garde.

McKenna was in the reserves and getting closer to the first team at Tottenham. He went on preseason tours under Jacques Santini and Martin Jol. He is there, listed in the Spurs section in the Rothmans Football Yearbook 2003-04, just below Robbie Keane and Ledley King and above Gus Poyet. One season on, Michael Carrick’s name would be added.

Martial made his Ligue 1 debut for Lyon in February 2013, coming on to share striker duties with Alexandre Lacazette. But he would appear only twice more for Lyon – once as a substitute for Steed Malbranque – as AS Monaco were poised. They took Martial south for €5 million. “He’s a big hope of his generation,” Monaco said.

McKenna’s career had begun to limp. A hip injury nagged. He had an operation. Once back, a hoped-for loan move to Barnet fell through and the hip continued to ache. Eventually McKenna was told it was so serious he had to stop playing. In Spurs’ 2008-09 squad, he is there between Ryan Mason and Luka Modric, but the next season, McKenna’s name is gone. It’s a brutal deletion. He was 22. “Obviously devastating,” he said.

Martial was still only 17 when he made his debut for Monaco. Claudio Ranieri was coach; the owner, Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought Fabinho, Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and more. Martial’s first season, 2013-14, was injury-affected but in his second he found a scoring groove and started in the 3-1 Champions League victory at Arsenal. Monaco and Martial were booming.

As his injury worsened, McKenna considered coaching. Alex Inglethorpe, head of Liverpool’s academy, and John McDermott, the English FA’s technical director, were Spurs youth coaches then. They encouraged McKenna, brought him in. He started a three-year sports science degree at Loughborough University, kept coaching, visited Vancouver Whitecaps. A big door had closed; windows were opening.

In the first few weeks of 2015-16, Martial played for Monaco and was called up by France. On September 1st – for an initial €40 million – he joined United. Van Gaal bemoaned the fee but called Martial “naturally talented”. The debut goal against Liverpool came with Carrick in midfield.

After his graduation McKenna returned to Tottenham. Mauricio Pochettino was there. McKenna coached the youth team and attracted compliments. After defeating United in the Youth Cup, Nicky Butt among others recommended him. McKenna was a United fan and in September 2016, as a youth coach, he moved to Manchester. He and Martial had come together.

Martial’s first season ended with United fifth. But they won the FA Cup; he was top scorer. He played for France at Euro 2016, turned 20. But United replaced Van Gaal with Jose Mourinho and within months Martial was dropped. A pattern of exclusion-inclusion began. United signed other forwards – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez and, later, Odion Ighalo – plus Marcus Rashford was rising. Under Mourinho, Martial won the League Cup and Europa League but already the question was if his talent would be fulfilled.

Mourinho liked what he saw in McKenna and promoted him. It was 2018, he was 32. He and Carrick were Mourinho’s assistants and when that ended, they were kept on by Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

So was Martial. Despite the doubts, in 2019 under Solskjær United offered Martial a new contract until 2024. Given the No 9 shirt, Martial responded. His best season followed – 23 goals in 48 games. He won United’s players’ player of the year. United finished third in the league.

McKenna stayed at United for a few weeks after Solskjær’s dismissal in November 2021, so he saw Ralf Rangnick walk in. But Ipswich came with a request: “Get us out of League One”, and 18 months later, with 101 goals, McKenna did. Ipswich were back in the Championship and on Tuesday night, briefly, went top. They could be in the Premier League in five months. “Looks a natural,” Carrick said of McKenna the manager.

Also on Tuesday night, United were laughed out of Europe. Martial, who has scored 12 League goals across three-and-a-bit seasons – with a six-month loan to Sevilla last year – was absent. He has appeared demotivated, subdued and has been substituted by Erik Ten Hag, his fifth manager in eight years. Martial will have a view on the red chaos he ran into and will soon stroll out of. There will be no new contract. United travel to Liverpool tomorrow and Martial’s debut goal feels a long time ago. He is still young – 28 earlier this month.

Today McKenna takes charge of Ipswich against Norwich City: the East Anglian derby. He is 37, very much the future.

A career trajectory is rarely a smooth diagonal line to the stars. But after that early snap, McKenna has taken control of his. He is an emblem of Ipswich Town’s renewal.

Martial, after his early spike, has let his zigzag downwards. He has become an emblem of United’s recurring slump. He was once the future.