Is it all over for Marcus Rashford and Manchester United?

By Dharnish Iqbal

Football

Sun December 22, 2024 · 5h ago

These were the cutting words Marcus Rashford used in an interview with Henry Winter when asked if the forward was staying or going.

The timing of the interview by Winter feels like a rebuttal, a response to stories that Rashford was up for sale.

As always with Manchester United, it’s one big soap opera that feels like it may be coming to a sorry end:

How did we get here?

How did it get to this? An academy graduate burst onto the scene and scored a hat-trick on his debut under Louis van Gaal when the club was going through an injury crisis.

A player who cried tears during the FA Cup final last season when United defied the odds to beat Manchester City.

It felt like for a long time with Rashford, you were waiting for the beast to wake up.

Once the Jose Mourinho era had come to an end and the priority wasn’t Romelu Lukaku or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rashford started to show his threatening goal-scoring prowess combining with Antony Martial and Bruno Fernandes under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s counter-attacking team.

For the first time in his career, Rashford scored 20 goals for two seasons in a row before a poor season under Ralf Rangnick. The entire team lacked good performances as United dealt with shoe-horning Cristiano Ronaldo.

It was around this time when if things weren't going well, Rashford looked the shell of a player he was under Solskjaer. Losing game time to Ronaldo, he flirted with an exit in the summer.

Then came the greatest season of his career, in 2022-23, the young cub had formed into an unstoppable Lion.

Powering Erik ten Hag's team to a successful season scoring 30 goals along the way, as United looked like they were finally onto something. Crucially, the English forward became one of the club’s top earners at this time, earning himself a bumper £325,000 a week contract something that needs to be remembered in the current context.

Then came another downturn in form for the club and player as United lost their way.

Disciplinary issues became a problem, as Rashford was forced to apologise for attending his own Birthday party hours after being on the end of a 3-0 thumping by Manchester City: ‘It is unacceptable. I told him. He apologised and that's it' said an agitated Ten Hag.

This was not the first instance of Rashford’s problems off the pitch. In the 22-23 season he had overslept and failed to report to a team meeting on time before playing Wolves. It mattered less back then, because though he was dropped from the starting line-up, he came on and scored the winner.

But Rashford had another slip-up at the start of this year, going out in Belfast two nights in a row before reporting himself too ill to train the morning after and subsequently dropped for an FA Cup tie.

The scrutiny and criticism of United intensifies when such incidents happen.

Rashford was so fed up with the constant over-examinations of his form he responded with an open letter in the Players Tribune: 'If you ever question my commitment Man United, that's when I have to speak up'.

Perhaps because he's an academy graduate or a local Manchester boy, Rashford does bear the brunt of criticism more than other United players and it clearly affects him.

Excessive criticisms of him taking a flight out to New York during an international break or quotes like ‘He’s not that good of a player for us to talk about him as much as we do’ seem harsh.

On the flipside, Rashford was rewarded a bumper contract on the back of his best season ever and hasn't seemed to hit the same heights since. A disregard for discipline and the rules has only added fuel to the fire. United's ruthless new owners are penny-pinching from ground staff's Christmas bonuses, they aren't going to flinch in getting rid of their top earners and set an example.

It’s also salient that a new manager in Ruben Amorim has come in and immediately not hesitated to drop United’s number ten out of the squad entirely with damning quotes: ‘We try to evaluate everything, training performance, game performance, engagement with team-mates. It is simple selection’

For a player that has been disciplined multiple times before it's damning that a new manager would drop a big player so early. It indicates the England forward's lack of interest.

So, you have a huge talent not living up to expectations on a bumper contract and a new ruthless coach and ownership determined to lay down a marker who doesn't like what they see.

The best solution for both parties would be for Rashford to respond to Amorim’s cajoling, use it as motivation and become the player he once was.

From the 27-year-old's perspective however, he's fed up with the persistent jibes and it's resulting in his lack of application: 'For so long with Rash, you try a thing, it doesn't work," Amorim said. "Let's continue to do the same thing? Or something different?’

The ‘something different’ may be shipping the player off.

Where could Rashford go?

PSG have been missing a penetrative attacker ever since Kylian Mbappe left. Though Luis Enrique is a disciplinarian himself and was ruthless with the French forward, Rashford would have to make sure the same habits don’t repeat themselves if a move to Paris is on the cards. Barcelona may also be an option with them looking to replace an ageing Robert Lewandowski, as some of Rashford’s best work was when he played as a central striker under Ten Hag, with possibly his best game in a United shirt at the Camp Nou.

For Rashford to reclaim his joy for football a move to another club could revitalise him.

His play-making abilities have improved, he's still notched seven goals this season and in an environment without constant chatter on his personal life or form he could thrive.

Though he has lost a yard of pace due to playing through injury, his excellent goal-scoring record with England shows when used right, he'd make most teams better.

United tends to be the place where for the best part of a decade, careers have gone to die. In a similar ilk to Jadon Sancho, a move though painful could be the best course of action for Rashford’s career and United’s new era to move forward.

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