Marcus Rashford has reportedly sanctioned a gargantuan pay cut to facilitate his loan to Barcelona, who have a ‘verbal agreement’ with Manchester United.
Barcelona have ramped up their pursuit of Rashford in recent weeks after missing out on Athletic Bilbao forward Nico Williams, their primary target for the left-wing position.
With the Spanish giants in perennial financial bother, the sort of loan with no obligation to buy which helped showcase Rashford in the second half of last season at Aston Villa carries inevitable appeal.
And that is the precise deal they have arranged with Manchester United after David Ornstein revealed talks were ‘advancing’ between the two clubs.
Fabrizio Romano has now claimed that a ‘verbal agreement in principle’ is in place with ‘details being finalised today’ before Manchester United sanction Rashford’s flight to Spain.
The England international forward will then undergo a medical in the ‘next days’ ahead of completing another loan with a buy option.
It was thought that Rashford’s wage of around £325,000 a week might pose a problem, with Barcelona either unwilling or unable to cover that salary quite as much as Villa, who were paying around 90% of it during his six-month stay.
But Ben Jacobs has revealed the remarkable lengths Rashford has gone to in an effort to expedite his dream move.
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He has reported that Rashford will take ‘a salary cut’ and ‘be paid around €10m gross, including bonuses’, which works out at little under £170,000 a week.
That ‘concession’ means Barcelona can cover the entirety of his wage, which Manchester United will be able to write off their books for a season.
Rashford was one of the more shiftable members of their bomb squad, with player sales needed at Manchester United before they add to the signing of Matheus Cunha.
The Brazilian featured in the club’s first pre-season friendly of the summer against Leeds on Saturday and Ruben Amorim was thrilled with the performance of his new recruit.
“We have a lack of pace, especially in the middle of the park, and you can feel that’s hard to bring the ball,” the head coach told MUTV.
“But we create chances, I think Matheus Cunha showed what we need, that he’s the player when he receives the ball between the lines, he can be really aggressive in the direction of the opponent.
“We suffered a little bit when we tried to press high, they kick the ball, win the second ball and they were a danger in that moment.
“We have a lot to do but it was a first test against a Premier League team, with two different teams, so it was a good test.
“I felt the environment is really good, of course sometimes we’re going to struggle, but what I feel since the first moment is we are going to struggle but we struggle together and that is the beginning of everything. And then we have to put the quality because this club is not just about the effort, it’s the quality and you have to win games.
“As a group, we have a lot to improve, the speed of the game, all the details, so, yeah, we are going to improve.”
Bryan Mbeumo is expected to be the next Manchester United signing this summer after a breakthrough was found in talks over a fee with Brentford.
