‘Gross’ Marcus Rashford slander destroyed as Man Utd stand accused

Marcus Rashford is dominating the Mailbox and he has a whole lot of defenders who are blaming Man Utd.

Watch some football on Wednesday night and send some views to theeditor@football365,com

Man Utd have ruined Rashford’s career
At the risk of over-reacting to one mail, the Rashford slander all around the internet today is gross and quite telling.

Calling him unambitious is rich. If he was “ambitious” he’d have dumped your cesspool of a club 5-7 years ago. Consider this – he’s not leaving after being “dropped for one game”, he’s leaving after wasting almost a decade with his home club despite insane mismanagement and lack of ambition or direction. Championing Antony, the glass-based Mount and a soon-to-be Chelsea player is hilarious.

Personally, I think United failed Rashford far more than just with a lack of ambition. This man should’ve been England’s premiere attacking threat for most of the last decade. He should’ve made Harry Kane moot by now. But United’s lack of coaching stability, horrific appointments, misunderstanding of his abilities as a player and how to utilize him correctly and build support for him is the main reason he now seems like he’s done at 27. To this day no one can confidently tell what his best position is and the United trash-fire is a big reason why.

Sure, he’s not been perfect. Not even close. Probably not the best attitude ever. But pretending that him looking for new options at this point is some kind of huge slight against the club is embarrassing. It’s clearly in the best interest of both parties to go their separate ways now, but it’s been in his best interest for like 5 years now and he stuck around for you. And he took so much abuse during that time, it’s wild.

That interview is actually quite harmless and respectful. Let that man go in peace, you’ve ruined his career already, he deserves it. Hopefully, he finds himself somewhere nice like Spain or Italy and finds his feet back in a slightly more easy-going league. Maybe he can even have a revival in the national team one day.

And if your retort is “well he was happy to collect a massive paycheck…” Well yeah. Of course he was. Stop being a child. This is a grown man being paid for his job, which your club is failing to maximize. You ran a potential club icon to the absolute ground and are now kicking him on his way out. Shame on you.
Tom, LFC (the less said about the emotional City fans the better. Take a deep breath and think back to the times when you were absolute sh*t, it might help you with proportions.)

MORE ON THE RASHFORD BOMBSHELL FROM F365…
👉 Rashford to Arsenal, Garnacho to Atletico? Six potential 2025 Man Utd sales to fund Amorim rebuild
👉 Marcus Rashford leaving Man Utd: A case for the Premier League Big Eight
👉 Marcus Rashford is ‘talentless ambitionless spineless waste of space’

…Firstly, to Craig and Steve Jones, are you okay lads?

Kudos to The Editor for including those two erudite pieces of correspondence. They really added to the debate…..

My main issue, for want of a better word, is with the points raised in his letter by Aman.

Do you really think that Marcus Rashford has decided to leave just because he got left out on Sunday? Surely this goes back much further than that and, as ever, completely ignores the absolute s*it-show that the Club has been for years. It’s always the players’ fault through, right?

I’m pretty convinced that Marcus Rashford’s biggest current problem is actually being at Man Utd, not his “lazy and careless attitude” or “lack of willpower”.

Time will tell, but I am also pretty sure that there will indeed be decent offers for a player who scored 30 goals just two seasons ago.

Credit to you Aman for sticking with it though and suggesting that the perpetually injured Mason Mount (a central midfielder) and also Jadon Sancho are both better than Rashford. It should be noted of course that the latter has been good everywhere, except at Man Utd.

What does that tell you?
Gareth (Not even a United fan)

…I’m a Manchester United fan, and have found Marcus Rashford’s general malaise as frustrating as anyone. But to offer a defence, I read something very true in a shared tweet/ Facebook post/Reddit comment a little while ago (where all the wisdom is found now, tbf).

It said something along the lines of: there are three things that everyone needs for them to fulfil a job role. The first one is time, of which you get eight hours a day, and is always replenished – not a problem. The second one is energy, which dwindles over the course of a few weeks/months, which is why we get annual leave – to have a break and come back with our energy levels topped up. And the third one is ‘giving a sh*t’, which is diminished by bad management, customers or managers with sh*tty attitudes, and so on. The thing with that one is that it can’t be replaced – once it’s gone, it’s gone.

This rang very true with me, to the point where it would ideally be taught to those studying for management qualifications. It also could well be true of Rashford – I’d fully understand if after training at subpar training facilities, playing in a stadium with a leaky roof, and seeing revolving doors bring in and take away players and managers with insufficient quality, he simply can’t muster any enthusiasm any more. Why would you?
Dan, Worthing

…Thanks for giving Aman the opportunity to show yet again that certain footballers – in this case Marcus Rashford – cannot win whatever they do. Rashford is a footballer, who wants to play football; having fallen out of favour with the new manager, he has suggested he might have to move clubs in order to do this. Consequently, he is marked out as someone with “no willpower to back his talent” and “a lazy and careless attitude”.

Imagine for a second that Rashford or his agent had not made these intimations to the media; there is no way whatsoever that a Rashford not playing but equally not complaining is considered by either the media or the fans as “working hard in training to win his place back”. It’s absolutely nailed on he’s considered the modern-day Winston Bogarde, collecting millions in wages without actually playing any matches to earn any of it.

For better or worse, Rashford has put himself in a bit of corner, but this could have an advantage for Manchester United. If he wants a move, he’ll need to play well to convince someone he is worth the high wages all United players are on compared to most other clubs, and not merely the negative aspects of the situation Aman has chosen to focus on.

Ultimately, Rashford has been below his best but has still been better than some other players who don’t have such a high profile outside of football. A bit of poor form and grumbling doesn’t change that he’s still a good player, and overall, it’s in Manchester United’s better interests to have him happy, motivated and playing well than it would be to sell him.
Ed Quoththeraven

Rashford going nowhere in January…
Marcus Rashford is under contract until 2028. He is on wages of £350k a week. Whilst he’s inefficient in terms of pounds per goal (over £1M per goal apparently) he does occasionally find the net to the extent that he’s our top league scorer with a whopping four. It’s a low bar.

He doesn’t seem to fit United’s system but would he fit any other top side’s system? He doesn’t track back for United and this seems to be a requirement for all players at top clubs these days.

So he’s got a long contract, extreme wages, doesn’t score enough or work hard enough to justify the wages. Doesn’t really fit in to any top teams and even if people think he would do well at Arsenal, United would not want to sell to a “rival” (lol). For the clubs that he’s likely interested in going to, he’s not a good fit.

And whilst United need the money, they would have to spend immediately to cover the loss of Rashford’s modest goal output because we are not exactly firing on all cylinders. He would garner the fabled pure profit but no one is going to pay up front cash for him in January, having been on such pathetic form since 2023. The best that can happen is a loan with obligation to buy, whilst covering all his wages. United would then be dependent upon some poor sap agreeing to the same deal for their star winger.

And emotionally, a United academy product who has scored so many goals for the club, leaving in what’s meant to be his prime is a bad look for United.

For the reasons above I think Rashford leaving in January is a big fat nothing burger. Having said he wants to leave and the pressure off, Amorim will get a tune out of Rashford until the summer, when he will still have three years on his contract. That will be the time to review.

That said, if we somehow manage to get Nico Williams to join and use Rashford to pay for that (through the magic of pure profit and amortisation) I’ll probably wet myself, Gary Neville style.
Ashmundo

How PR works
So Aman went off on a hysterical rant about Rashford throwing his toys out of the pram in an interview only two days after a derby win.

But this interview was published the day after it was widely reported that he was available for transfer. For instance, Jamie Jackson in The Guardian wrote two separate articles about this (he does love to procrastinate does Jamie).

The next day we have Amorim giving a presser saying he wants Rashford to stay.

So, you’ve got the club (presumably) leaking that he’s for sale, the player saying he wants to leave and why, and the manager saying he wants him to stay. Call me a cynic but the timings or contents do not look to be coincidental.

But nevertheless the less Aman chooses only to beat on Marcus Rashford. Why?

For what it’s worth I didn’t see much toy throwing or ranting. Seemed fairly calm and reasonable.
A, LFC, Montreal

Rashford: The emerging narrative
I think there’s only one way this is headed.

Rashford will come off the bench at Old Trafford on Sunday, score in the 94th minute to rescue a point, run to the technical area and stand in front of Amorim, close his eyes and point to his temple.

Whereupon a dragon will descend from the battleship-grey Manchester murk overhead and incinerate Rashford on the spot prompting Garnacho to intensify his warm up and Barney Ronay to be sucked immediately into another dimension through the force generated by the closure of this narrative loop.

Just wait and see.
John ‘did you get batteries?’ Mac, Cork

MORE ON THE RASHFORD BOMBSHELL FROM F365…
👉 Rashford to Arsenal, Garnacho to Atletico? Six potential 2025 Man Utd sales to fund Amorim rebuild
👉 Marcus Rashford leaving Man Utd: A case for the Premier League Big Eight
👉 Marcus Rashford is ‘talentless ambitionless spineless waste of space’

Man Utd quiet and unassuming? Really?
Quiet and unassuming being the embodiment of United’s identity? F@cking hell Dave, that’s some serious delusion about a club the CEO described as the Disneyland of football and whose former players and fans continually hype up emerging talent to ridiculous levels (Mainoo/Seedorf being the latest in a long line).
James Outram, Wirral

Fans of City fans
Does anyone else get the distinct impression that Steve Jones, mcfc season ticket holder for over 50 years and proud Mancunian born and bred and more importantly so proud of my club uses the words ‘woke’ and ‘snowflake’ to finish his other rants (at anyone that will listen)? Gammon man, they’re getting everywhere… He probably was the kid that took his ball home in a huff when he was a kid too.
Darren (Barcelona via Manchester)

P.S Merry Christmas everyone.