What now for Marcus Rashford after his rejection by Gareth Southgate and England? And don’t say an FA Cup winner’s medal. Even taking down Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday would not leaven a season that started badly then blew out alarmingly.
Perhaps a summer out of the spotlight, time to consider his future is welcome? Maybe the nuclear option? A future that does not involve Manchester United.
Rashford, a player with 60 caps and 401 club appearances to his name, should be at his peak at 26 and one of the first names in Southgate’s squad. Instead, he was arguably the easiest to drop.
“With Marcus I just feel that players in that area of the pitch have had better seasons, it’s as simple as that,” Southgate said. And that was it. Rashford gone in 60 seconds.
The sight of Rashford engaging in angry exchanges with United supporters during the warm-up before the final home game of the season against Newcastle felt like divorce papers being filed.
The voice of Josh, a caller to talkSPORT’s post-season phone-in on Sunday, seemed representative when he fumed over Rashford’s failure to acknowledge the away supporters after the match at Brighton. “Get him out of my club,” he said.
This bitter juncture could never have been foreseen when Rashford broke into the United team eight years ago, a local lad promoted from the academy to heartwarming acclaim as a late replacement for the injured Anthony Martial.
The goals came quickly against Midtjylland and Arsenal and before the season’s end he was an England player. And now look at him, a fallen hero who appears tethered to some awful malaise, unable to break free of whatever it is that has him in its grip.
It is clear there has to be a reckoning of some kind if he is to reconnect with his old self. And with Southgate putting a red line through his name and United in the midst of a radical overhaul this would appear to be his carpe diem moment. Of all the elements that malfunctioned in United’s annus horribilis, none seemed so radically out of step with what had gone before.
In Erik ten Hag’s first season Rashford hit 30 goals in all competitions and was one of the principal reasons for optimism ahead of the second. A Carabao Cup medal and Champions League qualification were seen as a switch triggered in United’s long awaited climb back towards the summit they vacated with the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.
A year on Rashford is the symbol of something else entirely at United, a decline of such stunning magnitude none beyond the prized few, including Kobbie Mainoo, Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho and skipper Bruno Fernandes, can be certain of their futures.
Even if Ten Hag were to pull off a coup against City, a reprise of Louis van Gaal’s ignoble end, sacked with the cup on his lap, cannot be discounted.
Paris Saint-Germain was thought to be Rashford’s most likely destination were he ever to leave Old Trafford. A year ago it might have been.
However, a player who at one time drew comparisons with Kylian Mbappe will have to look elsewhere for a home. Ordinarily it would be too early to consider Saudi Arabia, but on wages of £330,000 a week, not many outside the kingdom can afford him.
A loan move to a Champions League club might work in the absence of a permanent deal, or a change of manager at United might offer a way for Rashford to continue at Old Trafford if it can be established that his fall is linked to a breakdown in his relationship with Ten Hag.
Reports of a fragmented dressing room are consistent with performances that lacked any sense of common purpose or trust. That said, a regime predicated on radical, data-driven reforms is unlikely to be persuaded by romantic attachments to the past.
Rashford’s response to his England exclusion flashed across social media. Where else? “Wishing Gareth and the boys all the best for the up and coming tournament,” it read, both a sad postscript to a season to forget and the signal to address his future with urgency.
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