Marcus Rashford was there at the start of the Unai Emery project. He played in the Spaniard’s first two games at Aston Villa. Not for Aston Villa, admittedly: he was part of the Manchester United side beaten 3-1 in Emery’s auspicious debut, a scorer four days later as, in a Carabao Cup rematch, the new manager was condemned to a first defeat in charge. It capped a fine day for Rashford, who had been named in England’s World Cup squad that afternoon.
He was to score three goals in Qatar, 30 for United that season. At that point, encouragingly as Emery had begun, it felt implausible to say that, a couple of years later, he would be declaring that “it’s the constant ambition that is attractive”. Or not about Villa, anyway. Because if they had shown ambition even before hiring Emery – the previous season’s flagship signing was Philippe Coutinho, like Rashford a big name on big wages and a cautionary tale now – then he was shaping up as the poster boy of Erik ten Hag’s reign.
Now there is a way in which Rashford has traded up by leaving United on loan for Villa. The 27-year-old has only started one knockout game in the Champions League in six seasons; given Villa’s last-16 opponents will be either Atalanta, Club Brugge, Borussia Dortmund or Sporting CP, it is possible he will play in the competition’s quarter-final for the first time since 2019.
Villa and Rashford is a union made possible by the rise of one, the fall of another. Rashford’s wretched last 18 months makes it a risk for Emery, albeit a qualified one. While Villa are covering more than £200,000 a week of the forward’s wages, they have an option to buy for £40m. Should he fail in the next few months, should either his form or his off-field issues deter Villa, he becomes United’s problem again.
Villa can take confidence from Emery’s record of exerting a transformative effect on attackers’ careers; Jhon Duran is the most recent example and one of the most profitable, given his £64m sale to Al-Nassr. Rashford has taken the Colombian’s No 9 shirt.
Part of his probable role at Villa Park would be to combine the best of Duran and Ollie Watkins. With Villa down to one specialist striker, and Watkins injured in Saturday’s defeat at Wolves, there will surely be times when Rashford is needed to reprise the front-running role that he is equipped to, but which is not his preference. Part of Duran’s value to Villa, meanwhile, lay in his capacity to be a superlative substitute: his hot streak of goals from the bench may have been unsustainable but Villa could do with unearthing another difference-maker.
The presumption, however, is that the duties envisaged for Rashford are operating off the left. “I’ve had to choose somewhere where I feel my style of football is suited to,” he said, and Villa are at their best when they spring quick, devastating attacks. They have been hampered this season by a lack of impact from the specialist wingers, which in turn reflects a quirk of Emery’s tactics.
Morgan Rogers has been both Villa’s finest winger and No 10 this season, but the arrivals of Rashford, Donyell Malen and Marco Asensio should allow the former Middlesbrough man to take a central role. Emery tends to prefer to use a fast attacker on one flank, more of a midfielder on the other; usually John McGinn or Jacob Ramsey. The complication for Rashford may be that the winger has often tended to be used on the right, his less favoured side.
But Villa have had both a high turnover of wingers and diminishing returns. Moussa Diaby came and went in a year of sporadic brilliance and mixed displays. Jaden Philogene returned and went in six months: terrific against Bayern Munich, he otherwise underwhelmed. Leon Bailey has been the constant but scored 10 goals last season and just one this. Villa have only had three players who have chipped in with more than four goals and one of them, Duran, is gone.
Their frantic trading has generated a multitude of possibilities, and they repelled an Arsenal offer for Watkins, but they have arguably secured an upgrade in attack after six deals. Of the three outgoings – Duran, Philogene and Emi Buendia – only the Colombian made a significant contribution. Three arrivals, in Rashford, Malen and Asensio, have the talent and pedigree to do so.
If PSR has provided some of the context, Villa have felt creative in their busyness and their business. There have, so far, been no footballing winners from the summer deals that took Douglas Luiz to Juventus and Enzo Barrenechea and Samuel Iling-Junior to Villa, and then out again on loan. Or, indeed, from the arrival of Lewis Dobbin from Everton: a forgotten figure is now on his second Championship loan of the campaign. Meanwhile, well as Amadou Onana began, useful a substitute as Ross Barkley has been, it is possible to argue none of Villa’s summer signings figure in their strongest side.
If Duran’s huge sale, Philogene’s swift departure and the exit of Diego Carlos have created leeway to recruit again, Villa’s deals (and their interest in Joao Felix) suggest Emery has a type: lost talents, looking for someone to revive their careers. Rashford fits into a broader pattern. Maybe Villa take the view that if one comes off, if it gives them one more elite attacker, the policy will succeed. Rashford needs that success story to be him.
