How Man Utd's two stars have fared since Neville's demand blast three years ago

Former Manchester United flop Alexis Sanchez celebrates his 34th birthday today, yet one will not find too much bunting at Old Trafford.

Red Devils fans and then-manager Jose Mourinho thought they had secured the bargain of the century when United sent Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Arsenal in exchange for Sanchez.

Mkhitaryan had struggled at Old Trafford, and Sanchez had established himself as one of the best players in the Premier League, having hammered home 80 goal and 49 assists in 166 appearances in all competitions for the Gunners.

Unfortunately, Sanchez could not reproduce his quality from his time at the Gunners, and he was sold to Inter Milan after mustering only five goals and nine assists in 45 appearances for the club.

Former United captain Gary Neville was one of the Chilean's fiercest critics, claiming his misfiring presence in the United starting eleven was hampering the development of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.

"He [Mourinho] brought Alexis Sanchez into the club and look at what's happened to them since Alexis Sanchez came in," Neville told Sky Sports in 2018.

"If you look at the actual stats and you think about before Sanchez arrived at the club, they were playing quite a bit of football, they were scoring goals and contributing, they had assists.

"But since Alexis Sanchez has come to the club, obviously he's played a lot of the games, and that's what's happened.

"There's been a big impact negatively, so they've [Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial] got to get back to the standards they were setting earlier in the season and what they're capable of."

At the time of Sanchez's arrival onto the red-half of Manchester, Rashford was still widely considered as a young, up and coming talent, rather than an assured first-team regular.

However, despite Neville's fears, his progress was not hindered too badly after Sanchez joined the club.

He still made 99 appearances in all competitions for the Reds, scoring 26 goals and contributing twenty one assists for the club.

Sanchez's exit from the club in the 2019-20 season saw the Englishman become one of the first names on the team sheet under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

He found the net 43 times and made 27 goals for the Reds in 103 appearances under the Norwegian boss.

Ralf Rangnick also appears to be a huge fan of the 24-year-old, as he has started both of his opening matches against Crystal Palace and Norwich City.

Martial's overall career Old Trafford has been an almighty rollercoaster, and his form with and without Sanchez is no different.

On several occasions, Martial has appeared to be on the brink of fulfilling the world class potential United fans had been craving far, but he has never quite been able to take that extra step.

Similarly to Rashford, Martial was also afforded several chances to impress, despite the Chilean's arrival.

While Sanchez was at the club, he made 83 appearances, scoring 23 goals and contributing 21 assists.

Solskjaer is the United manager to have come closest to extracting Martial's evident talent, as the Norweigan afforded the Frenchman the opportunity to spearhead the attack.

He initially relished the extra pressure, hammering home 23 goals and creating 12 others in 48 appearances in the 2019-20 season.

Unfortunately, his 2020-21 campaign failed to hit the heights of the previous season, as he only recorded seven goals and ten assists in 37 appearances all competitions.

Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo 's arrival in the summer, as well as Mason Greenwood's emergence has also pushed him even further down the pecking order, where he will likely eventually depart Old Trafford on a whimper.

Unfortunately, Sanchez's sudden stagnation has extended into his time at Inter Milan.

The Chilean's four goals and ten assists in thirty-two appearances on loan at the Italian giants convinced them to sign him on a free transfer the following season.

While his seven goals and eight assists in thirty-eight appearances did play a marginal role in Inter's Serie A title triumph, he still played second fiddle to Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez throughout the campaign.

Lukaku's £98m move to Chelsea also did not help his starting eleven chances this season, as the club simply brought in Edin Dzeko on a free transfer to compensate for the Belgian's absence.

However, Sanchez's goal and assist in Inter's 4-0 home victory against Cagliari was a very positive sign for the former Arsenal man, whose performances are almost exclusively from the bench.