It’s sad that it has come to this, but most Manchester United fans would not be too concerned if Marcus Rashford left the club. Sad because he’s a Manchester lad — a United fan, and a supremely talented one at that — but he’s not revered.
He’s an inconsistent player in an inconsistent team and any love for him has gradually, but consistently, diminished. Taking opinions outside the away end at Wolverhampton Wanderers in February, it was difficult to find a United fan who wanted him to stay at the club. Granted, that was a few days after he went out in Belfast and missed training (not the most serious of offences, but still unprofessional), but feelings have barely changed.
Asked on Monday night in the United We Stand fanzine how they would feel if Rashford left the club, 14.1 per cent of fans said they would be “gutted” as they wanted him to be part of United’s future — but the remaining 85.9 per cent said they wouldn’t be that bothered.
If you love someone, set them free and all that, but it’s not that simple. If there’s any love left, it’s strained at best. It may all prove theoretical since Rashford is entitled to see out his contract, which runs until 2028. He cannot be blamed for signing that five-year deal after an impressive 2022-23 season.
United would rather Rashford stay and return to form. As reported in The Athletic on Monday, the club would only consider a sale if he wants to go and a substantial bid comes in, but that’s hardly an emphatic ‘he’s going nowhere’. United’s decision-makers know the reality and would rather talk up an asset — but who would buy him?
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Rashford’s take-home pay from his latest contract means he’s priced out of much of the market. His price is high, yet his stock is not. Barcelona twice tried to sign him but knew they were chancing their luck. Paris Saint-Germain had been linked too. Now? He is one of the best-paid players in the world but is not even a contender for Manchester United’s player-of-the-year award, let alone football’s biggest individual accolades. Those awards rarely go to players at teams who are not competing for titles and Erik ten Hag’s side are well off where they and Rashford wanted to be this season.
It’s a shame. This is a player who thrived when given his debut as an 18-year-old by Louis van Gaal and flowered when many wilted; who was described as “the head of the talent” at the club by Jose Mourinho; who played some of his best football under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, scoring 22 and 21 in Norwegian’s two full seasons as manager and who scored 30 goals last season, flying in a team who exceeded expectations. Then came a slump. And not for the first time.
Rashford has failed to perform under Ten Hag (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
Everyone has their theories, but it’s not easy to play for United. The glare of scrutiny is stronger than ever and you saw Rashford react to criticism last week. “It is abuse and has been for months. Enough is enough,” he wrote on X.
He should not be a virtual punchbag because fans are frustrated their favourite football team are miles off the pace — and fans are often harder on their own.
His critics are not standing in his shoes. They are not the ones getting pernicious abuse with every missed chance or failure to track back. It is worse in the modern era, too. Past United players, now revered as club legends, had some sustained abuse from fans, but none of it seems as visceral compared to what Rashford and others suffer from in the social media age. Harry Maguire can tell him all about just how bad that gets.
There are other complications. At Old Trafford, there’s been a disconnect between reality and expectation for a decade. The expectation is that the team and its players are comparable with the best on the planet, but United have finished outside the top four of the Premier League five times in the past 10 seasons, and have failed to reach the Champions League semi-finals since 2011.
For Rashford, there has not been the stability he might have enjoyed under Sir Alex Ferguson, playing instead under six managers in nine years, each with their own styles and nuances. He was taught to play to a style when he came through the academy — during a difficult time for United’s youth teams — and then asked to play and fit in with several styles and systems. Players around him have been injured, hampering his game. It’s tough near the top.
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Nor is it easy being him, living in Manchester’s village-like goldfish bowl, where he’s judged wherever he goes. He bears the weight of expectation of having become ‘Saint Marcus’ during the Covid-19-enforced lockdown, when everyone wanted a piece of him. However, this fame brings its own set of challenges. Actions that would typically go unnoticed are magnified when the team isn’t performing well. He might not want to talk about football to every person who comes up to him.
What’s the alternative? There’s a big world out there, one where you can enjoy life and smile, as his friend Jesse Lingard is finding out. Lingard became a scapegoat for fans, Paul Pogba and Phil Jones, too. None of those three play for United now. Fans always want a scapegoat for when things don’t go well and Rashford is the current one for many.
There are school teachers who proudly tell their stories about him and people who grew up with Rashford who speak highly of him as a person but for all his PR advisors, there’s long been something missing. It’s also true that a player’s relationship with the media and the public is often complicated. Take Andy Cole, who was welcomed into the Premier League Hall of Fame last week. He was also battered by his own fans when he played at Old Trafford — the same fans who laud him now.
Cole, like Rashford, chose to barely interact with journalists. He felt they were out to get him, his mindset was to prove them wrong. For that, he was labelled moody and awkward.
Then, a month after retiring in 2009, he sat down for four hours to talk about his career and was thoughtful, bright, funny and cogent. He had such a fine career to talk about. That was the real him, the truth was that he was shy until he knew and trusted someone because he felt he had been stitched up so many times.
Like most of his United team-mates, Rashford’s career is not in the best place. He was annoyed not to get enough minutes for England at the last European Championship in 2021 and he will be fortunate if he starts regularly at this summer’s tournament. He will know better than most, however, that everything can turn quickly, including the fans.
Supporters are passionate but they are also fickle. The same fans outside Wolves who wanted to see the back of him after Belfast also cheered him when he scored a couple of minutes into the game.
They cheered him, too, when he scored each of his 131 United goals and played brilliantly, even against the best, including Barcelona, Manchester City (who tried to sign him when he was a kid), Liverpool and Chelsea. But we’re a long way from that point and we might never get back to it.
(Top photo: MI News/NurPhoto)
