Reports that Barcelona would happily ‘send Marcus Rashford home’ to Manchester United prove there’s a burning desire for him to fail in Catalonia.
The Man United loanee has played three competitive games for his new club and is yet to register a goal or assist.
Despite no goal involvements, he was called up by England boss Thomas Tuchel and started against Andorra on Saturday.
He played at Villa Park, which he called home for six months last season, enjoying a fruitful spell on loan at Aston Villa that helped him earn a ‘dream’ move to Barcelona.
It was heavily debated whether he deserved a move to the La Liga giants, but it made sense for Barcelona. With no transfer fee involved, Rashford was able to secure an incredible switch, while United offloaded someone on huge wages they had no intention of playing.
He’s playing in another country, yet the obsession remains, and the Spanish media have quickly jumped on the bandwagon, realising that negative Rashford news is always positive news for them.
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We’re definitely not taking El Nacional’s word as gospel. But that’s not the point. The frequent vilifying of Rashford is the point.
He’s not universally liked — no footballer is — but people seem to revel in his demise, or potential demise in this case.
Sure, Rashford annoyed a lot of United fans with what they saw as a lack of effort, poor body language and some rubbish performances, but he still deserves their best wishes, having dedicated most of his life to the club.
And yes, he’s become more than a footballer thanks to his activism, notably forcing the British government to extend free school meals during the pandemic. But after crossing that football/politics divide, every move Rashford makes has been heavily scrutinised.
That means any disciplinary action is treated as worse because it’s him. And we’re not excusing phoning in sick for training after a night out, but any mistake, big or small, is guaranteed to make mainstream headlines. That’s the price he’s paid for being a bloody decent bloke.
The Nacional report in question can no longer be found on their website, but it’s been aggregated by plenty (including us), keeping it alive over the last few days.
And the line that he could be ‘sent home’ is just so lazy and predictable. It’s obviously never going to happen, is it? We wouldn’t rule out something happening in January, but even then it feels pretty unrealistic.
A report in Spain claims Barcelona are ‘considering sending Rashford home’ as he is ‘forced to improve’ to remain at the club beyond this season.
‘There’s already tension surrounding Rashford’ as Barcelona are ‘disappointed with his performances’, while they are ‘demanding that he improves quickly’ as they ‘won’t have infinite patience’.
It is claimed that Rashford will return to Man Utd if his form does not improve, while the report also claims Barcelona would have to ‘pay’ to ‘break’ their ‘agreement’ with the Premier League club.
Tension? Disappointment? Demands? Yep, that’s Nacional all over. And music to the ears of the English press.
They’re on the Rashford-to-fail bandwagon after three games. Three games in which he was hardly disastrous, FFS.
Until the day he retires, Rashford will always be a storyline.
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