Marcus Rashford’s future as a Manchester United player and possibly even as a top level footballer has attracted a lot of attention over the last year or so.
Rashford’s brilliant 30-goal haul in 2022/23 has been followed by long barren spells, accusations of poor attitude and body language and reports of ill-advised off-field antics.
As we wrote here after Thursday’s trip to Viktoria Plzen, Rashford seems broken.
The Telegraph have done a deep dive into the issue and unearthed some interesting insights.
Despite the success of the 22/23 season, sources claim that the issues date back to before that.
“Rashford was unhappy with his game-time at United under interim manager Ralf Rangnick but the concerns ran much deeper,” the outlet claims.
“He was tired of being shunted around in different positions and, moreover, increasingly beaten down by the United soap opera. As one source put it: ‘I just think sometimes you can lose confidence in everything around you.’”
Comparisons were made between life as a United player and one as, say, a City or Liverpool player. The implication is that Rashford’s camp believe “with a degree of envy” that had he been playing in Mo Salah’s place at Anfield, he would have been just as successful, and vice-versa.
“The Rashford camp would occasionally wonder how things might have looked had the England striker had the benefit of playing in a settled position within a cohesive, well-oiled team with established patterns of play,” The Telegraph claims.
Sir Alex Ferguson is then cited, with the report claiming that he “would tell those within his circle that he would have relished the chance to work with him.”
Apparently, the great man believes (or believed) Rashford was United’s best player but that his talents were not being harnessed properly.
Whether Amorim can achieve that harnessing remains to be seen. Rashford will not be easy to sell on current form, given he has a £325,000 per week contract which runs until 2028. Not many, if any, clubs would be willing to match that and United’s financial position makes it difficult and unsavoury to have to buy him out of his contract.
As per The Telegraph, Rashford is “impenetrable”. Their sources claim that “You’d have what you felt was a really good conversation with him, but then the next day it was like it had gone in one ear and out the other,” and “I know his birth certificate says he’s 27, but he is closer to an 18-year-old in other ways, so the support has to be right.”
In an ideal world, Amorim will find the key to motivating Rashford, helping to restore his confidence and love of playing football. If the Portuguese can achieve that, it will surely transform the whole club’s fortunes as well as those of Marcus Rashford MBE.
Featured image Stephen Pond via Getty Images
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Red Billy
Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and totally obsessed with football’s transfer market. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.
