Marcus Rashford is at a crossroads and leaving Manchester United is the answer

There is abundant scientific evidence that wingers and wide forwards peak in football at around 26 years of age. It’s the age commonly accepted as the physical peak for players in those positions, when even without the nuanced tactical understanding that comes with maturity, they can inflict maximum damage through athleticism alone. It’s also the age Marcus Rashford is now.

And yet, instead of electrifying the European Championship with his prodigious turn of pace, he will be stuck at home in Cheshire kicking his heels.

What a waste. It’s easy to forget, for all the terrible headlines surrounding him over the last year, just how much excitement Rashford can generate when he walks with confidence. At the World Cup in Qatar, his finishing was so lethal, with three goals in 137 minutes of action, that Gareth Southgate raised an outcry when he failed to bring it to the throes of England’s quarter-final defeat by France. “Rashford could have put us on the front foot and changed the game,” fumed Rio Ferdinand.

Fast forward 18 months, and this potentially exciting forward is no longer even worthy of being included in an extended 33-man squad.
This was not how Rashford’s career was supposed to play out. After a stunning season, last summer seemed to see him fit for bright club and country feats. But the miracle narrative has since taken a turn for the worse, with his experience at Old Trafford so tormented that he spent the warm-up for Manchester United’s last home game in an angry row with his own supporters.

It is tempting here to blame the institution rather than the individual, to pretend that the pervasive sense of decay at United leaves no player innocent. But Rashford also has to take his share of responsibility.

His off-the-ball indolence is not a matter of subjective interpretation, but demonstrable fact. The figures show he made far less pressure in the final third last season than in either of the previous two campaigns. He also ran much less, averaging 19 rushes per game compared to 22 two years earlier.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville’s verdict was ultimately hard to argue with. “There’s something wrong,” he said. “It’s not just that he doesn’t play football well. He doesn’t look happy.”

This dissatisfaction manifested itself in his cri de coeur for The Players’ Tribune, where Rashford suggested his critics were desperate to bring him down after his hugely influential free meals campaign during the pandemic. It was an argument that strained his relationship with United fans, who resented his abandonment of the effort.

The problem wasn’t that the paying punters got him wrong, it was that they expected him to justify his £325,000-a-week salary with little more than a string of ineffective performances or an unauthorized trip to Belfast that prompted him to report sick in training.

Thirty goals one season, eight the next? This is a decline even its most ardent apologists would struggle to justify.

The harsh reality is that Rashford is in dire need of a reset. For all his protestations of loyalty to United, the marriage has broken down to the extent that he would be best advised to put his future elsewhere.

PSG, Chelsea and Spurs are potential suitors

It’s not like there’s a lack of interest. Paris St-Germain have long made overtures, with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the French club’s president, hatching a plan to sign him after his dazzling displays at the World Cup. Talks of a move to Chelsea have not let up, while it remains to be seen if Tottenham Hotspur could make a move should they offload Richarlison.

A change of course can hardly come a moment too soon. While there are extenuating circumstances for his fall from grace at United, with the arrival of Rasmus Hojlund reducing his chances in front of goal, those who follow the club home and away have questioned his commitment to the cause.

At Luton in February, footage of his poor pressing went viral, showing him neglecting to even try to tackle Ross Barkley. And after the hellish mess of a penalty shoot-out win against Coventry City last month, fans booed him off the pitch.

It is not a sustainable situation. As Rene Meulensteen, once an integral part of United’s training set-up, said: “He’s a Manchester boy and it would be a shame if he goes. But maybe a change of coach can help him.”

Who could argue with that? Rashford is crying out to be reinvigorated by fresh scenery, a setting where he is not routinely hammered by fans who feel they are not seeing an adequate return on his extraordinary wages.

The pain of being abandoned by England should serve as the sharpest reality check. Rashford cannot portray himself as the victim of Southgate’s harsh treatment, given that nine of the strikers called up scored more goals than him last season. In fairness, he took the news kindly, wishing the team well in Germany.

But now he must figure out how to reset the wayward trajectory of his career. And it can start with a brutal look in the mirror, an acknowledgment that a 26-year-old in the prime of his athletic talents shouldn’t let the biggest tournaments pass him by.