Rashford U-turn confirmed after Amorim somehow receives ‘pointed message’ from ‘toxic’ star

It is difficult to view Marcus Rashford scoring two excellent and decisive Champions League goals in a narrow win for Barcelona against Newcastle as anything other than yet another reason to laugh and shake one’s head at Manchester United.

Mediawatch hasn’t actually tried to see it from a different angle, so important and fun it is to marvel at how players immediately become good again once they leave Old Trafford.

But it is inevitable that some would push that agenda too far, with this the top story from the MailOnline on Friday morning:

‘The start of Marcus Rashford’s redemption? Barcelona star reveals why he is ‘better’ in subtle Man United dig as he is challenged to take the next step after stunning double in Newcastle win’

A passing knowledge of Rashford and how he has generally publicly discussed Manchester United with respect and reverence despite that not always being reciprocated is all that’s required to know this ‘subtle Man United dig’ is almost definitely complete bumwater. But we are obliged to check out of interest to see just how daft it is.

‘Rashford of course was delighted with his haul, saying: “It’s going good [in Spain], I am learning a lot as it is a new way of football, but I am enjoying it all and I think it is making me a better player.”‘

The lads Amorim and Ratcliffe should know by now where to apply the ointment for that sick burn. It’s a dig so subtle you would be forgiven for not realising it existed.

Post box

These are, by the way, ludicrous ways of describing that glorious second Rashford goal:

‘The United loanee, bombed out and insulted by the hapless Ruben Amorim last season, then hammered home a second with a deflected shot which cannoned in off the underside of the bar’ – Dave Kidd, The Sun.

‘Dodging a challenge from a Newcastle defender, he unleashed a 25-yard strike that spectacularly found its way into the far corner off the post’ – Patrick Austen-Hardy, Daily Mirror website.

It’s all about Hughes

It is interesting to see Ian Herbert write in the Daily Mail about how Rashford bore ‘the look of a man who felt he owned the place and this stage,’ that ‘he has found something in Catalonia and the intensive Spanish lessons he is undertaking several times a week are more than mere diplomacy’.

And there we all were thinking he had built a Duolingo streak just to keep up appearances.

‘While Ruben Amorim treated him with thinly veiled contempt, Flick has given him professional respect,’ the deputy chief sports writer adds.

Herbert goes on to say that while at times ‘it was hard to locate much evidence’ of Rashford ‘rediscovering the talent and belief he had put down somewhere and struggled to pick up,’ he ultimately provided, well, this:

‘Evidence, before our very eyes, that the players we write off so soon are perhaps not the lost souls we believe them to be.’

And that is interesting precisely because Herbert himself also wrote in January about how Rashford needed to be ‘talked out of his current sense of victimhood’ and was ‘apparently incapable of saving himself’.

Which seems a little stronger than simply writing someone off or calling them a ‘lost soul’.

It was obviously framed through the experience of Mark Hughes and how he ‘actually viewed wearing the No 10 jersey at Manchester United as a privilege and something to cherish,’ before taking the brave and bold decision to join Barcelona.

And how Rashford, who has ‘a far higher opinion of himself’, ‘had rather imagined that he, too, would be heading to Barcelona’ but ‘as anyone could have predicted, Barca aren’t remotely interested in him, and neither is any other big club’.

Oh, Ian. At least in the intervening eight months he has belatedly learned that the players we write off so soon – or refer to as ‘victims’ with high opinions of themselves who are ‘apparently incapable’ of turning things around – are perhaps not the lost souls we believe them to be.

Although he did call Rashford a ‘boy, masquerading as a 27-year-old’ who ‘even makes Grealish seem like the soul of sobriety’ and is ‘viewed by some managers as too much of a risk, too toxic’ in July. So that lesson must have been recent. Thursday evening, maybe?

This line from that January article is also pretty good:

‘Goodness knows how Rashford – who says he feels ‘misunderstood’ and ‘disheartened’, despite years of coddling by United – would have dealt with what came Hughes’ way in Spain.’

Fairly well so far. Three more goals this season and he’ll match what Hughes scored across 37 appearances in Spain. Not bad to say ‘Barca aren’t remotely interested’.

READ MORE: Man Utd loanee Rashford hails ‘refreshing’ Barcelona move as Romano makes ‘complete BS’ claim

Celebrate good times, come on

The biggest bowl of piping hot nonsense is served up dutifully by Patrick Austen-Hardy of the Reach website stable, who predictably lap it up.

For the Daily Mirror website, Rashford’s goal celebration obviously ‘speaks volumes’ despite him using said goal celebration since late 2022.

The Manchester Evening News goes a step further, saying he unequivocally ‘sent a pointed message to Ruben Amorim’.

Sticking his finger to his temple is, in all fairness, entirely specifically a ‘pointed message’. But to Amorim? When Rashford has been doing that for almost three years now?

‘Considering the manner of his celebration, it may have even been a message to Amorim…’

True. It may also have been a message to Donald Trump, or AI, or that weird Liverpool fan. Or maybe it was just something he has done for absolutely ages, and well before Amorim even came into his orbit.

Rash decision

And of course, Rashford reminding the world he can be quite good at football has to prompt the return of just the dirt worst headline trope.

‘Can Man United recall Marcus Rashford? Barcelona transfer rules explained’ – Manchester Evening News.

‘Man Utd Marcus Rashford transfer recall rules explained and if winger can return’ – Daily Express website.

The short version is that a) they have no idea if Rashford can be recalled, b) they acknowledge he probably can’t, going by how loan deals of this profile are generally structured, and c) even if he can, he absolutely won’t be because none of the parties involved will want to.

But there was obviously mileage in pretending Rashford might have been recalled from his Aston Villa loan so why not bring that energy into a full season of speculating if and whether Amorim might bring him back to exile him and decimate his market value further?