Marcus Rashford's loan move to Aston Villa marks a significant turning point in his career. The once-bright prospect, who was considered a future United legend, has seen his form and confidence decline in recent years. This move, while initially surprising, offers Rashford a chance to reignite his career under a capable manager in Unai Emery.
Someone who has known Marcus Rashford for several years said they saw this coming years ago. That there was an inkling of not if, but when his Manchester United career would go into freefall. They noticed a shift in demeanour in early 2022, around the time it emerged he was first considering a move away from United amid dissatisfaction under the interim manager Ralf Rangnick. When Rashford settled on a 'new challenge' nearly eight weeks ago, many believed he had Barcelona in mind.
He will instead wear a different shade of claret down the M6. A source aware of the negotiations said Rashford rejected more prestigious clubs than Aston Villa as he would not have to relocate. Rashford said: “I was lucky to have a few clubs approach me but Aston Villa was an easy decision.” It is an easy commute for Rashford, or his former United academy teammate RoShaun Williams, who has been his driver. Some Villa players reside in Cheshire and socialise in Manchester city centre. Villa were desperate for a striker and at ‘panic stations’, according to one agent. The sizable sale of Jhon Duran to Al Nassr for £64million paved the way for Villa and United to quickly conclude a loan for the remainder of the season. It absolutely suits all parties. Can you name Villa's main left winger? No. Rashford will slot in there and switch to centre forward if Ollie Watkins, forced off at Wolves recently, is ever unavailable. Rashford gets to work under an excellent coach in Unai Emery and plays in the Champions League knockout stage for the first time in three years. United are no longer saddled with a player whose training form was regarded as so inadequate that Ruben Amorim said he would have rather played his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach. Villa are above United in the table but it's a less prestigious club that would never previously have been on his radar. If he was ever to leave United, it was supposed to be for Barca or Paris Saint-Germain. Not the 1996 Coca-Cola Cup winners. Rashford was supposed to trump Wayne Rooney as United's record goalscorer and possibly Ryan Giggs's appearance record. It may be 426 appearances and 138 goals all-out for Rashford. One of the privileges of covering United for the MEN is you are aware of the rough diamonds in the academy before outsiders. This correspondent reported on Rashford's first squad call-up, was in attendance for his first and only goal for the under 21s and was the first to spot he was about to make his debut on that uplifting night against Midtjylland. Rashford captured the imagination with those two goals against Midtjylland in February 2016. He trumped that three days later on his full Premier League debut with two more goals against Arsenal. Any notion he was a flash-in-the-pan was dispelled that day. Rashford was in the team to stay. There was the lad-vs-dad winner on his derby debut when he skinned Martin Demichelis, an electric match-winning performance against Liverpool when he denuded Trent Alexander-Arnold and that night in Paris with a 94th-minute penalty against PSG, the first of five ‘Fergie Time’ winners. He was a national treasure during the Covid-19 pandemic with commendable campaigning for free school meals. To United fans, Rashford was the team’s poster boy, the Wythenshawe lad who rejected Liverpool and Manchester City as a kid at Fletcher Moss to fulfil the dream of pulling on the United shirt. Rashford is the only United player to break the 30-goal barrier in a season since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. He started in four of United’s five triumphant post-Ferguson finals. When Rashford strolled through the mixed zone after the sweetest of FA Cup victories over City last May, he was clutching a bottle of champagne and a speaker blaring the song On One Tonight by Gunna. The win, and Rashford’s role, seemed to secure his future. United’s decision then not to sack Erik ten Hag, who disciplined Rashford on at least two occasions, raised the issue as to whether a change of scenery was in Rashford’s interests. Six months later, he has accepted it is. “I was lucky to have a few clubs approach me but Aston Villa was an easy decision,” Rashford said last week. “I really admire the way that Aston Villa have been playing this season, and the manager’s ambitions. I just want to play football and am excited to get started.” Before the winter transfer window opened, there was speculative chatter about Arsenal. An agency source stressed that the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules mean clubs have to go beyond due diligence when signing a player. Mikel Arteta was 'never going to go near' Rashford. Arteta purged the Arsenal dressing room of high-earners Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Arsenal have two competitions to play for and Arteta presumably had no intention of upsetting the apple cart with a player who has crossed United managers past and present and spent his final seven weeks in matchday exile
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