It can be a lonely place in the bomb squad of Premier League clubs. During the past month, Marcus Rashford has found himself training solo, putting in the hard yards on the Harp Trading Estate in Stretford.
Punchbags line one of the walls in the gymnasium, with shelves of dumb-bells and weights waiting to be used. With his hood over his head, Rashford is there pumping his arms and legs on a dual-action “airbike”. He is at Ace Conditioning gymnasium, where a huge banner on the wall reads “Train With The Best”.
Rashford may have been training with his team-mates at Carrington but he has not featured in a single squad for Ruben Amorim during the last month. So has been undertaking extra training on his own to ensure he is ready when called upon.
He is no stranger to working away from United’s training ground – previously he had private one-on-one sessions at West Didsbury & Chorlton FC or Ashton United to regain his form for United. This time, however, the work put in was for the benefit of his next team: Aston Villa.
Sad demise of relationship forged in forward’s youth
The past month has been an ugly divorce in a marriage that looked like it would last forever. Even before Rashford made his debut nine years ago, even before he joined their academy, he had a connection with Old Trafford from playing there in kids’ tournaments.
“We used to stay until everyone had gone, and the stadium was nearly empty, just looking around and listening. Old Trafford really has this sound to it. It’s like a surround-sound echo, and it’s so calming to me. For a kid who moved around a lot, it’s always felt like my home,” he has written. “When something is inside you like that... It’s just inside you. Nobody put it there. It’s just there.”
When can the breakdown of Amorim’s relationship with Rashford be traced back to? They hardly got off to the best of starts following the appointment of the Portuguese coach, who arrived at the start of an international break with Rashford out of the England squad.
Amorim put no blame on Rashford jetting to America on his days off during his first days in charge at Old Trafford, insisting the club were responsible for having rules which allowed him to fly long-haul. But the optics were not great, with Rashford pictured at a basketball match.
It is thought that Amorim had reservations about Rashford even while he was a match-winner against Everton, which may turn out to be his last goals in a United shirt. Within a fortnight, he was dropped from the match-day squad altogether and has only been an unused substitute once since.
Rashford received a damning assessment from Amorim after getting left out of the Manchester derby. He was dropped on “performance in training” but worse were suggestions that he was unhappy with Rashford off the pitch too. “The way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with your team-mates,” were the reasons of the United manager. Engaging with team-mates – or lack thereof – was interpreted as Rashford cutting a solitary figure, rather than the team man Amorim needed to turn the season around.
In January, he was not picked for a single match-day squad despite a heavy workload for United with extra matches in the Europa League this season. With no future in Amorim’s squad and United looking closely at adhering to the Premier League’s profit-and-sustainability rules, a departure for Rashford looked on the cards yet far from straightforward.
It was a month packed with reporting on Rashford and his future, starting on New Year’s Day when he angrily denied speaking to a leading football agency over switching representation from D N May Sports Management, who are owned by his brothers and led by Dwaine Maynard.
“Been a lot of false stories written over past weeks but, guys, this is getting ridiculous – never met with any agency and don’t have plans to...” Rashford wrote on his social-media platforms.
Player turned down Saudi riches
With the duties of intermediaries to liaise with the buying and selling clubs, getting Rashford to a new club would represent their biggest player transaction for D N May Sports Management. They negotiated the striker’s last contract renewal in 2023 after his stunning 30-goal season, but he was a one-man club who had never moved on loan. The other deals attributed to the agency on the Football Association’s official documents around that time were for EFL players.
Instantly ruled out was a move to Saudi Arabia, which would have been lucrative but may have ended any hopes of returning to the England squad. Jordan Henderson was picked when he went to the Saudi Pro League but eventually lost his place in Gareth Southgate’s plans.
There were offers worth up to £35 million per season for Rashford but he was determined to play in a more competitive league while still aged 27 and in the prime years of his career. Any move to Turkey, including a reunion with Jose Mourinho at Fenerbahce, was also ruled out.
Barcelona was Rashford’s preferred choice, it is understood. The Catalan club is revered by players, to the point that Erling Haaland was asked by a reporter about his thoughts on signing a 9½-year deal at Manchester City and effectively ruling out playing for Real Madrid “or Barça”.
The problem at the Nou Camp has been the financial restrictions that have hung over them since they agreed a contract with Lionel Messi but were unable to honour it because of La Liga’s salary limit. Barça needed to find deals for Eric Garcia and Ansu Fati but neither were easy. Third-party intermediaries tried to broke a deal for Fati to go to Wolves but it never got off the ground.
Monaco were looking at a deal for Rashford and were willing to put together a realistic package, taking over most if not all of his salary. While attendances at Stade Louis II are more League One than Champions League, the club has a touch of glamour with Monte Carlo and being a short drive from Cannes and Nice. But their interest was not reciprocated and Rashford went deep into January with his future uncertain.
West Ham looked at forwards during the window, including Rashford. Tottenham Hotspur distanced themselves from any move, although some sources say it looked like the type of deal they could go for. Villa’s move for Rashford was late during a flurry of activity from the club.
Paris St-Germain’s Marco Asensio was Unai Emery’s primary target and he managed to land the Spanish No 10. But Rashford was also being considered and, over the last weekend of the window, it appeared a deal could be done.
While at Sevilla, Monchi, the Villa director of football, would target a January signing to boost the team through a sticky patch. Youssef En-Nesyri and Anthony Martial were among their high-profile mid-season arrivals in recent seasons and the hope is that Rashford would use some of the fire in his belly from being left out at United. The final game of the season is at Old Trafford and he is likely to finish above them in the table.
It now seems inevitable that Rashford’s final actions in a United shirt will be jumping into a tackle at the Doosan Arena in Plzen, Czech Republic. He merely skimmed Viktoria Plzen defender Sampson Dweh but Rashford was already on a yellow card and Amorim subbed his forward within two minutes of the foul. They did not look at each other when Rashford walked past his coach in the technical area. He has not been picked since.
Rashford has been back at Old Trafford, meeting fans in the tunnel area of the stadium when United were beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth. But he has not been part of the squad on match day. He has sent congratulatory posts on Instagram, but has not been there on the pitch for any of their rare wins.
He becomes one of the rare occurrences in the post-Alex Ferguson era of a first-team player leaving United in the peak years of his career. The club have a status for players that means leaving is a last resort. Luke Shaw was on the end of personal criticism about his “football brain” from Mourinho but stuck around. Harry Maguire was dropped and stripped of the captaincy – he stayed. Paul Pogba, David de Gea and Raphael Varane left when contracts expired.
Such is the turnover of United managers that there is a fair chance of players staying put for another sacking. But when Amorim declared he would rather put his 63-year-old goalkeeper coach, Jorge Vital, on the bench instead of Rashford, the writing was on the wall. It put United in an awful negotiating position – the final piece of drama to Rashford’s ugly divorce.
