Man Utd forward Marcus Rashford is considering a move to Premier League side West Ham as Barcelona continue to drag their heels, according to reports.
The England international was left out of the Red Devils squad for their 2-1 Manchester Derby victory in December with Rashford only making one matchday squad since.
Amorim insisted the Man Utd forward was left out over “selection” but, in an interview the next day with journalist Henry Winter, Rashford claimed he was open to a “new challenge” away from Old Trafford.
That has led to lots of interest in Rashford in the January transfer window with Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund the main clubs to be linked in recent weeks.
However, reports in Spain indicate that Man Utd are ‘starting to lose patience’ with Barcelona and now Rashford is ‘negotiating his future with West Ham, a team that has positioned itself as the main candidate to secure his services’.
The report adds detail about why a concrete offer from Barcelona has taken so long to materialise:
‘Barça wanted to bring in Rashford on loan, given the club’s financial limitations. The board, headed by Deco, was clear that in order to undertake an operation of this calibre it was essential to get rid of two important players from the current squad. However, the high salary of the English striker and the pressure from West Ham have made any attempt by the Catalans difficult.’
The report in Spain continues:
‘At Barca , this decision is seen as a real betrayal. Deco had been negotiating intensively in recent weeks to bring the two sides closer together, trusting that the player’s desire to play under Flick, who sees him as an ideal reinforcement for the left flank, would tip the balance in favour of the Blaugrana team. However, the player’s desire to stay in his country has been decisive.
‘With Rashford ‘s signing practically ruled out, Barca will have to look for new alternatives in the market to reinforce the attack and satisfy the demands of Flick , who had the Englishman as one of his priorities.’
And former Man Utd defender Paul Parker insists Rashford has been “selfish” by attempting to “play one position” for the Red Devils rather than wherever the manager asks.
Parker said: “Given Amorim has only been here ten minutes I don’t think he’ll be worried about losing Rashford to another Premier League side. He’ll have seen that Rashford wasn’t showing enough effort or delivering.
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“Does he fit in what I want to do? Not really because he wants to play out wide left. Does he fit into one of the two number ten roles? I don’t think he does. He wants to sit on the touchline on the left, cut inside and shoot, quite basic really. It’s like park football with him. Players just want to play one position.
“If he did it at another club, people that love and see the game would be disappointed with him because it’s him being selfish and disrespectful to his town, to the fans, to the team he played for.
“Rashford hasn’t been honest with himself and the club he’s supposed to love. People want to act like he’s been treated badly but if your kid is continually behaving badly you’ve got to tell them off.
“Manchester United have decided to let him go because they got hoodwinked into giving him a lot of money. They paid well over the going rate with him. Eric Cantona didn’t get the sort of money Rashford has earned.
“The club have tried their best to get the best out of him. It’s okay to have a bad game but be honest to the club and fans and he hasn’t done that.”
