And you thought Raheem Sterling cost silly money?

On August 31st, Manchester United signed little-known Frenchman Anthony Martial from AS Monaco for a reported €50 million, with incentives and add-ons potentially pushing that figure all the way to €80 million. To put that in perspective, Luis Figo moved from FC Barcelona to Real Madrid in 2000 for €60 million (€72 million when adjusting for inflation). But what are those incentives? Reports are divided:

- Julien Laurens (London-based journalist working for Le Parisien) believes that United will pay Monaco an additional €10 million when Martial scores 25 goals, reaches 25 senior caps for France and wins the Ballon D'or, but all must be done before the end of his four-year contract

- Philippe Auclair (English football correspondent for Frannce Football magazine and RMC radio station) believes that United will pay Monaco €10 million when Martial plays 25 games for United, reaches 10 senior caps for France and is short-listed for the Ballon D'or

Regardless of the exact details, it seems clear that the transfer fee could rise all the way to €70 million very easily. It is very plausible that United will end up paying €70 million for a fairly average player.

There's no denying the transfer is a large risk. Martial, still only 19 years old, has played a total of 74 games, scored 15 goals and collected eight assists. Diving a bit deeper, Martial has only played 3,824 minutes competitively -- or 42.49 full games. That's actually quite a lot for a teenager, and a large part of his appeal as a prospect.

It's the same reason Raheem Sterling (9,538 minutes played, equal to 106.48 full matches), who is roughly a year older than Martial, is worth the €62.5 million Manchester City splurged on him.

Clubs are so often caught between looking for players that are either "proven" or have "potential", but seem weirdly unable to identify players that tick both boxes.

Take Arsenal's acquisition of Alexis Sanchez. The former-Barcelona forward was undoubtedly an excellent player when the Gunners decided to buy him from Barcelona for €42.5 million, but he was also only 25 years old, meaning he not only had room to grow and most of his peak left, but he also retained tremendous resale value if the transfer didn't come off. It was the perfect transfer.

Are Sterling and Martial "proven"? Not in the conventional sense, no. Neither has won any trophies, scored many goals or been the fulcrum of a top, top squad. But if you're comparing them to Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo then you're missing the point. You have to compare Sterling and Martial to other 19 and 20 year olds to see just how worthwhile they are.

- Raheem Sterling: 50 goals/assists in 106.48 full games = .47 goals/assists per-90 minutes

- Anthony Martial: 23 goals/assists in 42.49 full games = 0.54 goals/assists per-90 minutes

Martial plays more striker than Sterling, and the Englishman's been forced to play right wing-back at times, but I like crunching the numbers down to per-minutes to get a more accurate reflection of how much a player contributes. One must also keep in mind that being subbed off, say, in the 60th-minute mitigates the adverse effect on your per-minute production -- Martial has completed an entire game only seven times in his career. He is talented, but the rigors of playing so much football at such a young age have to be accounted for. He's also not a reckless shooter, only attempting 51 shots in Ligue 1 last season (roughly 2.5 per-90). He is decently clinical though, scoring nine goals on those 51 shots (17.6% conversion rate is decent, Sergio Aguero was at 14.1% in the BPL last season, but conversion rates do fluctuate quite a bit).

All-in-all, it is very encouraging that both of these players are already so productive at such a young age. The aforementioned Alexis scored and assisted on a paltry 18 goals in 5015 minutes (about 0.32 goals/assists per-90 minutes) over his first two seasons with Udinese (ages 19 through 21).

Of course, goals and assists aren't everything and players don't develop in a predictable upward slope (if only). Very few players are easy to predict like Messi (demigod at 19, our lord and savior at 25), but United have picked a player who ticks a lot of boxes. Martial looks like the real deal -- his sleek 5'11" frame, ability to go 0 to 60 in a fraction of a second and sheer power make him a fun watch. He isn't a baffling genius like Thomas Muller or a ball-hogging shot-monster like Alexis, but the comparisons to Thierry Henry are a bit wide of the mark too. No, he reminds me of Nicolas "Le Sulk" Anelka more than anything, but without the attitude problems. 

But we come back to THE question -- is he worth €80 million? Are United incompetent? Did Monaco rip off United? The answer is an emphatic "I don't know". Nobody knows. And that's part of the fun.

Look, United know exactly how ridiculous this is. They searched far and wide throughout Europe for a striker, waving their comical bag of money at Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern Munich and kept being rejected. They came to the same conclusion Arsenal did, the market for strikers was colder than Stoke on a wet Tuesday evening in December. The market was so cold that Arsenal just didn't sign anyone. But whereas Arsenal are in a relative position of contentedness about their squad, United were not, and they needed someone...anyone. So they decided if you can't buy a star, the next best thing to do is make one.