{"id":279875,"date":"2025-07-21T12:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T12:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/279875\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T12:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T12:01:12","slug":"manchester-united-shock-as-rashford-loan-almost-collapses-after-nightmare-flight-to-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/279875\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United shock as Rashford loan ‘almost’ collapses after ‘nightmare’ flight to Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcus Rashford was \u2018almost scuppered\u2019 in his mission to join Barcelona from Manchester United because of a slight delay from back-up airport of choice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marc of the man
<\/strong>It feels like The Sun<\/strong> know precisely what they\u2019re doing with this headline\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Marcus Rashford endures journey from hell as Man Utd star\u2019s transfer to Barcelona is almost scuppered by OASIS\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2026about a prominent and well-remunerated professional footballer with a poor public perception fuelled by an established history of negative and often targeted press coverage, who had to travel about an hour out of his way to board a private jet from a different airport because one of the Gallagher brothers had already taken up all the air space, facing another slight delay before setting off.<\/p>\n

They at least do not stick \u2018journey from hell\u2019 in quote marks backed up by a tweet from someone with about five followers, because the crucial distinction is that specifically The Sun themselves are calling that \u2013 a relatively quick drive and then flight to Barcelona for Rashford<\/strong><\/a> to complete his dream move, mind you \u2013 a \u2018journey from hell\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is even accompanied with a graphic depicting this \u2018NIGHTMARE JOURNEY\u2019 with a \u2018massive detour\u2019, with a map which for absolutely no good reason whatsoever includes a good portion of the rest of Europe but only Germany signposted, presumably because of the war.<\/p>\n

Those of a nervous disposition should probably look away now because this is harrowing stuff:<\/p>\n

\"Marcus<\/p>\n

Marcus Rashford\u2019s \u2018nightmare journey\u2019 to Barcelona<\/p>\n

That is awful. Our thoughts are with Marcus. And to be clear, our ridicule and derision is aimed not for one second at him but at the really quite weird media desperate to make him seem pampered and detached from reality over this mild inconvenience.<\/p>\n

A reminder that his move to Barcelona was supposedly \u2018almost scuppered\u2019 by this slight delay, as if this is actually September 1 and he faces a rush to beat the deadline. Unless they mean his literal airport \u2018transfer\u2019, in which case listen, fair play.<\/p>\n

As a source told The Sun, while the travel plans \u2018were disrupted\u2019 and \u2018it was all a bit stressful,\u2019 he \u2018would have walked to Barcelona to sign for them\u2019.<\/p>\n

That would be a sodding \u2018NIGHTMARE JOURNEY\u2019 worthy of a lazy diagram, not this\u00a0mosey down the A50.<\/p>\n

MORE MARCUS RASHFORD COVERAGE FROM F365<\/strong>
\ud83d\udc49 Rio Ferdinand ponders whether Man Utd have \u2018failed\u2019 Marcus Rashford amid exit<\/strong><\/a>
\ud83d\udc49 \u2018Unlucky for them\u2019 \u2013 Pogba slams \u2018crazy\u2019 Man Utd transfer as he makes Amorim \u2018sack\u2019 claim<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rash scream
<\/strong>It is great fun to see Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News<\/strong> explain in painstaking detail how \u2018Manchester United are the biggest winners in Marcus Rashford deal after Barcelona changed their mind\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018United\u00a0have done extremely well to get Rashford off the books before August,\u2019 he writes, clearly not realising his journey to Barcelona is likely to extend to next month at least.<\/p>\n

And that is about as far as Luckhurst goes in terms of this being a positive move for Manchester United. They should definitely be happy to free up about \u00a315m in terms of wages but the idea they \u2018are the biggest winners\u2019 here is absurd.<\/p>\n

Luckhurst tries to pretend this is a stupid move for Barcelona, who are signing proven elite cover for two different attacking positions to allow maximum rotation across different competitions.<\/p>\n

The Spanish side also have a buy option of around \u00a325m<\/strong><\/a> on a 27-year-old England international with 159 goals and 89 assists in\u00a0505 career appearances, who Manchester United wanted \u00a340m for earlier in the summer.<\/p>\n

Rashford also probably doesn\u2019t feel particularly frustrated at having to join actual Barcelona in a World Cup year, even with a pay cut, to keep competing for trophies and playing Champions League football.<\/p>\n

But no, \u2018Manchester United are the biggest winners\u2019 here because their head coach made it untenable for their highest earner and most prominent academy product in decades to stay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Me and my heart we got issues
<\/strong>There is something phenomenally David Moyes Era about this feature from the Daily Mirror<\/strong> in which David McDonnell explains \u2018four issues Ruben Amorim must solve during Manchester United\u2019s pre-season tour.<\/p>\n

They include:<\/p>\n

\u2018Scoring more goals\u2019
\u2018Getting the best out of Cunha\u2019 (is that not part of \u2018scoring more goals\u2019?)
\u2018Establishing a settled defence\u2019
\u2018Addressing a vulnerable midfield\u2019<\/p>\n

Christ, they\u2019re only out there for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

But also why stop there? What about sorting the goalkeeper situation? Do they not need to improve in terms of passing and creating chances?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not finish
<\/strong>\u201dA good season will be\u2026\u2019 \u2013 Man Utd ace reveals club\u2019s modest target for 2025\/26 campaign after 15th placed horror show\u2019 \u2013 The Sun website<\/strong>\u00a0from July 21 on Amad wanting a top-five finish.<\/p>\n

\u2018Man Utd set ambitious target for next season after worst Premier League campaign of all time\u2019 \u2013 The Sun website from May 12 the club\u2019s reported targeting of a top-six finish<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holding out hope<\/strong>
\u2018Former Arsenal star Rob Holding, 29, lined up for shock MLS transfer\u2019 \u2013 The Sun website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mediawatch is struggling to think of a more indelibly MLS player than 29-year-old Crystal Palace outcast who spent the second half of last season on loan at Sheffield United, Rob Holding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Rashford was \u2018almost scuppered\u2019 in his mission to join Barcelona from Manchester United because of a slight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[199,748,393,14146,163,4884,225,2465,98,103,25835,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-279875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-f365-features","12":"tag-front-page","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-manchester","16":"tag-manchester-united","17":"tag-marcus-rashford","18":"tag-mediawatch","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114891121356464298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}