According to reports, Marcus Rashford has ‘stunned’ some of his Aston Villa teammates since leaving Manchester United during the January transfer window.
Rashford left boyhood club Man Utd towards the end of the winter transfer window as he joined Aston Villa on loan with an option to buy for around £40m.
It was hoped that the appointment of Ruben Amorim could kickstart Rashford’s career at Man Utd, but the forward butted heads with the head coach on several occasions before he announced his intention to leave.
FC Barcelona were consistently mooted as Rashford’s preferred destination in January, while AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Napoli were also mentioned.
Despite this, Rashford’s poor form in the previous 18 months and his massive salary proved huge stumbling blocks before Aston Villa swooped after selling Jhon Duran to Al Nassr.
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Aston Villa are in the top ten of the Premier League net spend table after the winter window and Rashford has made a positive impression since leaving Man Utd.
Rashford has been eased into the fold by head coach Unai Emery, but he contributed two assists off the bench in their 2-1 win against Chelsea.
Now, a report from The i has gone ‘inside Rashford’s first month at Aston Villa’ after ‘a brutal, prolonged public castigation by United manager Amorim’ led to his exit.
On Emery’s ‘response’ to this treatment, the report claims:
‘It was the coldest of cold shoulders, but Unai Emery has responded by placing a more comforting arm around the forward.
‘The Villa manager, who sold his vision of Rashford’s rehabilitation in a phone call, has spent much time working one-on-one with the forward, mainly concentrating on positional play and tactical understanding.’
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The report has also commented on Rashford’s attitude in training as he’s left teammates ‘stunned’.
‘He is staying in a hotel close to Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training ground and has impressed coaches with the extra work he is putting in. He arrived at the club with one of the lowest body fat percentages, but there was almost two months before his last game for United, 56 minutes in a Europa League game against Viktoria Plzen, and his debut for Villa in the FA Cup against Tottenham Hotspur.
‘Villa’s interest changed everything. They were a club competing in the Champions League and for the Champions League – but far enough removed from his boyhood club that it did not feel as though he was slighting them.
‘He knows a few of the players from his England days and is said to have settled in well, has been nothing but polite and friendly with staff, only wanting to get his head down, work hard, and start enjoying football again.
‘One source said the players have been stunned by his ability in training – that he has frequently stood out in a squad packed full of talent.
‘The day after he signed, on 2 February, Villa’s players were given two days off with no game for eight days. But Rashford went into training anyway, working with a fitness coach on the grass and in the gym, in punishing sessions demonstrating his speed and strength.
‘He was keen to show his new employers that there were two sides to the story Amorim was telling in press conferences; that he wasn’t giving maximum effort in training, that he didn’t understand football the way the coach did, that he would prefer to put his 63-year-old goalkeeper coach Jorge Vital on the bench instead of the forward.’
