Marcus Rashford has been told he ‘tossed off his Manchester United career’ rather than it being taken away from him. Rashford is on a season-long loan at Barcelona, who have the option to buy him for £26million at the end of the campaign.
The England international has largely impressed at Spotify Camp Nou, scoring 10 goals and claiming 13 assists in 34 games. Rashford has not played for United since December 2024 and lost his ’10’ squad number to Matheus Cunha under former coach Ruben Amorim during the summer.
Before that, Amorim said he would rather name his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach as a substitute than a player who does not give his all, in response to a question about Rashford. The forward spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa and was forced to train at a separate time from United’s first-team players in the summer before he joined Hansi Flick’s side.
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But former United first-team masseur Rod Thornley, who worked at Old Trafford from 2000 to 2019, believes Rashford has to accept responsibility for his own demise at the Reds, as he opened up on how his body language started to change behind the scenes.
“I’ll say it, I don’t mind, I know Marcus, and if he’s not happy with what I say, I don’t care,” he told The Busby Way Podcast.
“He became unhappy. He became a different person. I watched this player that used to be a happy, lovely kid just moping around, especially in the club.
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“Outside the club, I used to see him every now and then, and he was fine outside the club, but in the club, he had this demeanour about him that just wasn’t great.
“Then it transferred onto the pitch, and then you see him walking around, and you just wanted energy levels out of him, which is what Michael Carrick is doing now.
“He’s getting energy levels out of the players, and you wanted that out of Marcus, but you just weren’t getting it, and it was tossed off basically.
“For me, he’s half tossed off his Manchester United career rather than it has been taken away from him.”
Although Rashford has made clear that he wants to join Barca permanently in the summer, Flick revealed last month that the forward’s long-term future with the Spanish giants remains uncertain despite some reports claiming the club have decided they will trigger the £26m clause in the loan agreement.
“(Sporting director) Deco and I always speak about our team and what we can do,” the German said when quizzed about Rashford.
“Marcus’ performances have been really good until now, but we have to manage it. It’s Deco’s job and the club’s job to work on next season so we have to wait.
“We still have plenty more time, there are many months, many days, many weeks ahead of us, and that’s how it is.”
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