Man United-Rashford-Barcelona transfer resolution tells us whether United might be serious again

How the Marcus Rashford Saga eventually resolves itself will tell us a great deal about just how serious a football club Manchester United are going to be.

United may be fourth in the table and looking likely to at the very least hold off the forces of daftness below them and perhaps even reel in a wearying Aston Villa on the home straight, but this still has the feel of a club very much in its banter era.

It’s been a long banter era. Because This Is Manchester United Football Club We’re Talking About it is also a banter era that contains more silverware and success than most clubs achieve in their history. But it’s a banter era nonetheless, and it definitely isn’t over.

Even their current good form under Michael Carrick’s interim eye has banter credentials out the wazoo. The United legends of the nineties and noughties who can never keep their nose out for five minutes have had plenty to say about the permanent job, and will continue to have things to say even as Carrick’s record improves and improves.

And you can see why. You can see why this current short-term success makes them nervous, because they see historical errors repeating themselves as an iconic United figure manages to make a few straightforward quick fixes to the previous manager’s most absurd and stubborn mistakes but with no guarantee that he is what’s best in the long term.

United’s form combined with the struggles of so many of their supposed rivals is likely to make Carrick’s elevation to the permanent role inevitable, with all its obvious banter potential.

There may simply be no way around that. United are, of course, still mired in a season that, no matter how well it ends, will be remembered for featuring just 40 games, the lowest amount any top-flight club in this country can ever play.

And it is still less than a year since the most embarrassing thing that can happen to any self-respecting football club happened to United: they lost a cup final to Spurs. Anything and everything that has happened since that miserable evening in Bilbao has only made that fact more rather than less ridiculous and mortifying.

United are still also stuck with their most famous supporter now being a posh lad from the home counties with long hair and an Argos endorsement deal, as well as a co-owner who is about two days away from stealing an AI-generated nostalgia-slop poem about parents not caring where their kids are for hours on end and nobody knowing what pasta or yoghurt were and being happier for their ignorance and posting it on Facebook.

So yes, there is only so much United can do to look serious and sensible beyond pointing at the graver nonsenses currently being performed elsewhere. On their own terms, they are still limited by the sheer depth of the banter furrow they have ploughed themselves into.

But one thing they can do and appear determined to do is keep the end of the Marcus Rashford Saga clean and tidy. At least on their end.

The chaos of Barcelona’s financials are not Man United’s concern, and it’s vital they don’t let another giant of a club’s banter cross streams with their own and risk triggering total bantronic reversal.

Barcelona already have a bargain. The £26m option included in Rashford’s loan is already a ludicrous knockdown price based on known factors. None of those factors have changed, beyond Rashford if anything exceeding early expectations in Spain.

There is no reason for United to budge here, and a serious club wouldn’t. Barcelona’s hand for a renegotiation is clearly the weaker here; they want the player and United really don’t. The current mutually agreed price is more than fair.

A strong United laughs off Barcelona’s begging. A weak United drag this out for another year with another loan and reduced option or obligation, or worse still risk what they’ve got going on by attempting to reintegrate Rashford into a squad that doesn’t need him on a wage that cannot be justified.

How this plays out won’t tell us everything about United’s hope of at last attaining escape velocity from the powerful force of banter gravity dragging them down, but it will give us a decent enough clue.