Can Anthony Martial and Memphis Emulate Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo?

As summer fades and the new season gets into its stride, distinct echoes of 2004 are beginning to emerge at Manchester United. It was in the summer of that year United first brought together two raw and hugely talented youngsters by the names of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

On the final day of August 2004, Rooney arrived from Everton for £27 million, still a teenager, uncouth and bullish, and hungry for more success after the surprise impact he had made at that summer's European Championships.

A year earlier, Cristiano Ronaldo had joined United as a relative unknown for £12 million, with his bad jumper and blond highlights, and the novelty that he shared his name with the other Ronaldo.

In that first season, the Portuguese showed enough to convince United they had purchased a unique and very special talent. His step-overs were fun, but self-indulgent, and there were early theatrics, but it was soon clear the boy could play and when it all came together no one could get near him.

He scored only two league goals in his first seven months at United, but he would finish the season with both a goal and a starring role, winning the FA Cup final against Millwall before returning to his homeland and helping take Portugal to the final of Euro 2004.

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Over the course of the next five years, Ronaldo and Rooney would become laden with trophies and medals by leading United to the unprecedented success of three consecutive Premier League titles and two Champions League finals, winning the first against Chelsea in Moscow in 2008.

The pair would both become club legends, winners of the Footballer of the Year award and recognised as two of the finest players of their generation.

Ronaldo would also become the first United player to win the Ballon d'Or for 40 years since George Best, and with his subsequent freakish feats at Real Madrid, he has made a compelling case to be known as one of the game's greatest ever players.

But back in 2004, when they were still teenagers, they offered only hope and potential for the future. Eleven years on, and United find themselves in a similar situation by now boasting a new pair of brilliant young players in Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial. In 2004, Rooney and Ronaldo weren't ready to carry a team but within four years had turned United into European champions.

Can Martial and Memphis emulate these celebrated achievements at Old Trafford?

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Memphis has played nine games for United, and Martial a mere 205 minutes, but already they have showed, with the right team assembled around them, United have two players who could help return them to the summit of English and European football.

Just like Rooney and Ronaldo, both have that innate confidence and belief in their ability, that strut and an overwhelming sense that they belong on the Old Trafford stage. Both, crucially, always demand the ball, never hide and have the muscle and speed to evade anyone who wants to stop them.

In his first six weeks, Memphis has impressed and already scored three sumptuous goals in the Champions League. Martial took minutes to announce himself at Old Trafford with his run and calm finish against Liverpool, before three days later replacing the injured Rooney and leading the line against PSV Eindhoven last week.

At Southampton on Sunday afternoon, the pair were the catalyst for an impressive win, Martial the calm scorer of two goals, while Memphis' wonderful turn and shot on to the post allowed Juan Mata to tap the ball into an empty net and put United out of sight.

They are young players, 19 and 21; they will have their lulls, they will disappear at times, but their talent will in time override that. It is not fanciful nor premature to predict greatness for them, for neither of them is a callow youth on the fringes of the squad.

Memphis already has 19 international caps, has appeared and scored at the World Cup and been voted Dutch Player of the Year. Martial too is a full international, has already played for three leading sides and in the Champions League with two of them. The one quality the pair must be given is patience, for Rooney and Ronaldo needed three seasons together to transform United.

And 11 years ago, they came into a more settled and experienced environment where Sir Alex Ferguson had by then served as manager for 18 years and could surround them with the reassuring presence and experience of Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

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The concern for Memphis and Martial is they have arrived at a very different Old Trafford where Louis van Gaal, after only 14 turbulent months, is still searching for authority. The Dutchman and Frenchman also don't have the same on-pitch support network as their predecessors. In 2015, there is only Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick with prolonged club experience, which will place even more pressure on their young shoulders.

Their large transfer fees are simply an occupational hazard of the talented, and Rooney and Ronaldo had them too in 2004; it is more the disjointed nature of Van Gaal's summer transfer business that will only increase the burden on them this season.

The failure to replace Angel Di Maria, Robin van Persie or even Javier Hernandez means more will be expected of Martial and Memphis now, and they won't be able to look to others to help them. 

For Martial and Memphis to begin to emulate Ronaldo and Rooney, United would need to show steady progress for the next two seasons and win the Premier League by the 2017-18 season. It is not beyond them, for the pair have the talent and the youthful bravado; they are just possibly waiting for a more accomplished supporting cast.