MY ACCOUNT
Manchester United are ready to offer Marcus Rashford a new deal at Old Trafford — but there is no guarantee he signs it.
Rashford, 24, has had limited opportunities this season and currently looks a player fed up with football.
The biggest decision of the striker’s career is coming up as he enters the final year of his contract at Old Trafford.
We look at where Rashford could go and why it might be the time to leave his boyhood club.
United struggles
It has been a torrid season for Rashford at Old Trafford — the poster boy of a campaign gone wrong.
His four Premier League goals have all come as a substitute with just 10 starts in the league so far this term.
This month’s Manchester derby snub with no other recognised strikers available appeared to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Less than 24 hours later, the first rumours that Rashford was considering his United future began to appear.
England snub
Subsequently England boss Gareth Southgate dropped Rashford from the Three Lions squad for the first time since late 2016.
His comments on Rashford were equally as damning, saying: “I don’t think they are big decisions, really. I think they’ve been fairly straightforward.
“From time to time I do go and do that with players [meet them], especially when a player is with us as often as he [Rashford] has been over a period of four years.
“For various reasons, Marcus has dropped out of that a little bit. We have players in that area of the pitch playing at a better level, so it is harsh but that is the nature of elite sport unfortunately.”
The World Cup in Qatar seems a long way away for England’s former golden boy.
Leaving home
It is not easy leaving your boyhood club, something Robbie Fowler did in 2001 when he felt he was not getting the chances at Liverpool any more.
But the ex-England striker reckons that is the move he will have to take if he wants to resurrect his career — and have any chance of playing in Qatar this November.
Fowler said: “I know how Marcus will feel. He loves United like I love Liverpool and he will be thinking he can’t turn his back on the club where he grew up.
“But he has a big decision to make, because he’s not getting any game time. That hurts. It always hurts, it used to destroy me every single time I was left out.
“And when you’ve been at the very top, you proved yourself at the highest level, it affects your sanity when you’re not playing.”
North London calling
Arsenal are one of the clubs heavily tipped with an interest in Rashford as they look to strengthen this summer.
Gabriel Martinelli, 20, will be the only striker left in the squad if Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah do not sign new deals and they have been linked with a whole host of forwards.
But not everyone is convinced he would be a good signing for Arsenal, including ex-Chelsea frontman Tony Cascarino.
He said: “To be a natural striker you have to be very, very clinical.
“You have to punish because, if you’re going to a club like Arsenal, they’re looking to progress and be a Champions League team, so you have to be clinical in front of goal.
“They’ve needed that and I don’t think Marcus is ready to do that at Arsenal.”
Should I say or should I go?
But not everyone is of the opinion Rashford should leave Old Trafford just yet.
Legend Wayne Rooney said: “To get the record and be United’s highest goalscorer is massive.
“What I hope is that Marcus Rashford gets his head out of his a**e and goes and breaks that record. He is a Manchester lad.”
And that is what either Erik ten Hag, Mauricio Pochettino or whoever else comes in to manage United this summer must decide — whether Rashford is good enough to be that striker or needs a fresh start elsewhere to reach his potential.
What is clear is that the decision does not look like happening any time soon — for now he must do his talking on the pitch.
