What Do You Want, Marcus?
Marcus Rashford has a shot at a much-needed fresh start.
This is a guest article by Chirag Sharatkumar. Subscribe to Sideline Stories.
Is Marcus Rashford still a footballer? Tough to say. Does Marcus Rashford still want to be a footballer? Even tougher.
Lately, it seems we hear more about Rashford the entity than we do Rashford the footballer. We also talk more about the entity than we do the footballer because, well, he doesn’t actually play all that much football these days and when he does, you’d be forgiven for missing it. The only thing we truly know about him in recent times is that Manchester United’s manager, Ruben Amorim, isn’t all that impressed.
So unimpressed, in fact, that the Portuguese decided to speed-run through his own rendition of an age-old Manchester United tradition: the new manager publicly falling out with a beloved star player.
Rashford had featured in just four Premier League matches for United since Amorim took over, six in all competitions, before being quietly, maybe even politely, jettisoned from the squad. He hasn’t played for United since mid-December, hasn’t trained much over the past few days, and hasn’t trained “well” since who knows when. Now, he finds himself a short way away, about 90 miles down the M6, on loan at Aston Villa for the remainder of the season.
It’s a move that makes a fair bit of sense for a player that often doesn’t. For Aston Villa, a dry loan means the risk is low, as is the potential for immediate reward. But Villa are clearly going places under Unai Emery and with a promising league campaign underway and a Champions League Round of 16 tie on the horizon, the atmosphere at Villa Park will undoubtedly be better than what Rashford has been subjected to at Old Trafford, with United languishing in the bottom half of the table.
More importantly, he will presumably get to play at Villa, which the England international maintains is his primary focus. Emery himself is no stranger to a project player and will relish the challenge of getting something out of Rashford. Emery has been instrumental in the development of Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers and has had previous success with similarly downtrodden and demoralised players to Rashford in the past.
Positionally, there is merit in the move given what Villa need and what Rashford — in theory, at least — offers on the pitch. With Jhon Duran completing a staggering £64m move to the greener pastures of Saudi Arabia, Emery will require a player who can offer the versatility of playing both on the wing and down the middle and who has the pace and intelligence to fit himself into Villa’s footballing philosophy. Rashford ticks all these boxes, assuming he actually wants to.
And that brings us back to the crux of the matter: what exactly does Marcus Rashford want?
Despite the best efforts of persistent media folk who repeatedly ask questions to which we won’t ever hear the answers, we still don’t know. Perhaps he doesn’t either. The questions, mind you, have been plenty. Why isn’t Rashford playing? Why is Amorim so unimpressed? Why doesn’t he train harder? Why doesn’t he want to leave? Why doesn’t he want to stay? Is he still good? Will he ever be again?
Amorim has faced the brunt of this line of questioning, inevitably resigning himself to polite but naive engagement with the media where he has patiently, purposefully and above all, repetitively explained that it is a matter of commitment in training. After far too many kinder attempts, he even went so far as to say that he’d rather have his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach, Jorge Vital, on the bench before “before a player who doesn’t give the maximum every day.”
While refreshing and even impressive at first, Amorim’s handling of this situation has grown to be quite puzzling. What good could have come from publicly flaming a high-profile player like Rashford in the media? Of course, it isn’t entirely his fault. He has been asked the same questions, too many and too often, and he has obliged with the same answers.
If the flurry of questions already posed wasn’t enough, Amorim’s dialogue leads us to another one: What does “giving the maximum” mean and why doesn’t Rashford do it? Unfortunately, we’re no closer to an answer here either.
The truth is that Rashford is admittedly lazy. His body language has often painted a picture of a man more enamoured by the benefits of being a footballer — ostensibly this is the money, lifestyle, and liberation it offers him — than he is in the football itself.
He has developed an adoring cult of personality in Manchester and across England, earning deserved plaudits for his philanthropic work in advocating for and engineering solutions to combat child hunger, poverty and racism. This cult of personality sometimes extends onto the pitch too, where it must be said, the numbers tell a vastly different story.
In nine seasons as part of United’s first team, Rashford has hit double digit goals in the league four times, crossing 15 just twice. In all competitions, he has crossed 20 goals just three times across these nine seasons. This is shockingly poor output for a player who is often hailed as one of the Premier League’s finest forwards.
Add to this the fact that he joined United at age seven, rose through the ranks at the academy, made his debut at 18, and was effectively thrust into the limelight, ordained The Saviour of Manchester United, and it’s of little surprise that a sense of superstardom has enveloped Rashford.
And maybe therein lies Rashford’s problem — the burden of being a superstar without having what it takes to back it up. His existence alone is given an inane amount of attention; so much that somewhere along the way, the idea of Marcus Rashford became more important than the player.
Despite all of this, though, there is still a good footballer in there somewhere. Buried deep, maybe, under years of tolerating United’s dysfunction, being expected to plaster every shortcoming, falling short, and then being scapegoated for the team’s failures. But it’s there somewhere.
And today, that somewhere is Villa Park. Rashford’s first moments as an Aston Villa player were not exactly awe-inspiring. “I can’t wait for the first training session,” he said, using the most lifeless of football transfer cliches to commemorate his arrival. Images of his contract signing invariably circulated over social media, where he looked hung down and hungover, more like a disheveled Rashford doppelgänger than the real deal.
This loan to Villa now presents an opportunity for Rashford to rediscover what that real deal is. In Emery, he has a capable, steady manager with clear ideas and an even clearer plan. He will be told, in no uncertain terms, what is expected of him, and he will be given freedom to express himself.
Today, Rashford has a chance to actually be a footballer again. To care, to train, to find out what kind of forward he is, and to reignite a fire that once burned brightly and boldly. Most importantly, he has an opportunity to try, and perhaps to understand once and for all who he is and what he wants not just from his career as a footballer, but from his life as a person.
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