Marcus Rashford completed a loan move to Barcelona last week, despite Man United hoping to offload him permanently.
Ross joined the MEN in August 2021. He was appointed Sport Content Editor in February 2022.
Amorim and Guardiola
Barcelona president Joan Laporta claimed last week that it had been Marcus Rashford’s “dream to play for Manchester United for the rest of his life”. That dream has been off the table for quite some time.
With Rashford’s United career clearly over and the club desperate to raise funds for further incomings, a permanent exit for Rashford was the priority when the window opened.
It soon became evident a permanent move would not be found, with United forced to take the next best option in allowing Rashford to move to Barcelona on a season-long loan with an option to buy. €30million (£26m) is claimed to be the fee required for the Catalan club to sign Rashford next summer, but if they opt against – as Aston Villa did just a few months ago – it leaves United in a sticky situation.
The move is something of a gamble on United’s part, but judging by the events unfolding on the other side of Manchester, it’s already looking like a gamble that was worth taking.
United’s plan to move Rashford on always had the chance of being complicated by Jack Grealish’s situation at Manchester City. Granted, Rashford and Grealish are very different players, but the two forwards were always likely to be linked with big hitters across Europe.
It was imperative United moved swiftly to avoid complications later in the window. They’ve done just that, albeit without sanctioning the permanent exit they’d hoped for, while City are left to search for a suitor for a player who wasn’t even named in their Club World Cup squad.
The longer Grealish remains a City player, the weaker their hand will be in any negotiations.
Unlike Rashford at United, Grealish took part in City training this week as the players returned from their summer break, but that looks like being the closest Grealish will come to playing alongside his teammates again.
Grealish needs to find a way out of the Etihad as much as City need to offload him. It’s far from an ideal situation, and one United have avoided with Rashford.
Even if they’ve been made to wait for the sale they wanted.
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