Manchester United are open to selling Marcus Rashford in January.
United are said to be concerned about Rashford’s lifestyle off the pitch and there are fears he is no longer as focused on his football as he could be. Sources have said he is dealing with a number of off-field distractions that are affecting his performances.
Rashford was fined two weeks’ wages in January after he was pictured drinking heavily on a night out in Belfast and was dropped for the team’s FA Cup win over Newport County after reporting ill on the Friday before the game. Under former manager Erik ten Hag, Rashford was also left out of the starting line-up for a St Stephen's Day win at Wolves in 2022 for “internal disciplinary” reasons. He came off the bench to score the winner.
Rashford still has a chance to turn things around under new manager Ruben Amorim and has scored three goals in five appearances under him, but time is running out and United need to see proof of his hunger and desire to do so.
The fact United were investigating a potential market for the 27-year-old before the start of the season shows how far his star has fallen given he signed a new contract that made him one of the club’s top earners, alongside Casemiro, in July 2023. Rashford missed out on the England squad for Euro 2024, with the last of his 60 caps coming in March.
The chances of United finding a buyer in January are remote given he earns around £325,000-a-week at Old Trafford and has not shown any consistent form for months. There is a greater chance of him being offloaded in the summer. He has a contract at the club until 2028. Very few clubs have the resources to match his current wages. A move to Saudi Arabia is an option while a change of country and environment in France with Paris St-Germain has also been mooted.
The sale of Rashford, even for a relatively modest fee given what he would have once commanded, is also attractive to United given their profit and sustainability concerns. As a homegrown player, any money brought in would represent “pure profit” under PSR which makes him even more vulnerable.
Amorim is set to operate on a more modest budget to Ten Hag at Manchester United and he will be tasked with maximising the untapped potential in the squad as the club aim to end the damaging and costly cycle of mass overhauls.
The new United hierarchy, which changed this week following the shock departure of Dan Ashworth, have no plans under Amorim to rip up a squad they feel is capable of delivering far more. The club are determined to move away from a culture of persistent upheaval they believe to be financially unsustainable and destructive to coherent squad building.
With losses before tax totalling £312.9 million over the past three seasons, United are under huge pressure to reduce costs, although selling Rashford would help the club reinvest.
Amorim has been linked with Viktor Gyokeres, the prolific Sweden international he managed during his time at Sporting. Any potential move for the 26-year-old would be made easier with any proceeds from selling Rashford.
“I can’t make fun of it, right now, it was hard for me to leave, if I start joking about this Gyokeres situation I’ll get in trouble,” Amorim has said previously. “This is my city, this is my country, so I’ll respect it.”
“Viktor has to stay until the end of the season, and then his life maybe is going somewhere else.”