Manchester United’s breakthrough sensation of last season, Marcus Rashford, is supposedly stalling on contract negotiations due to his lack of playing time under new manager Jose Mourinho.
The England international, who was promoted to the first team last season by Louis van Gaal due to a spate of injuries, has started just two of the last 12 Premier League games under Mourinho, something it seems he is not best pleased about.
While his concerns may seem fair, a touch of perspective must be added to the situation. The pressure Mourinho has been put under to deliver at Old Trafford, after years of underachievement during the tenures of both David Moyes and Van Gaal, is more than tangible. Therefore, any manager worth their salt would understand the inevitable backlash should he drop the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to give Rashford a run out and then go on to lose.
Whilst Rashford is a highly talented youngster and a great prospect, at a club like Manchester United, he is way off having any sort of player power over a manager of Mourinho’s stature.
What, in this case, may be needed to give the youngster a wake up call is a bit of the Anthony Martial treatment. The Frenchman, who arrived under Van Gaal as the world’s most expensive teenager, had almost been exiled from the first team before being hoisted back into the picture against Watford, where he was under pressure to perform and did so, taking his goal in fantastic fashion.
That goal may not mean an instant pass back into the starting XI for Martial, but it will certainly put him up in the manager’s estimations. While similar treatment for Rashford may be going a tad too far, he needs to take note what could happen should he continue with the standoff.
It is certainly true that there will be plenty of top clubs ready to snap him up and offer first team football week after week, however, none are really comparable to Manchester United. The club has shown faith in their hot prospect by offering talks and Rashford looks to have got ideas above his station.
Should Mourinho make it clear to Rashford that Old Trafford is the best place to be, whilst giving him a clear understanding of his place in the squad – that is one for the future, realistically, then with a new deal on the table, the Red Devils will have one of the best strikers in English football for a generation on their hands.
The young striker seems to be committed to the club and while there may some truth to the reports in newspapers like The Sun it seems like the player is not the type to be a contract rebel.