1 day Ago
How do you solve a problem like Marcus Rashford? It is a question several Manchester United managers have tried and failed to answer and as this month’s transfer window opens, the final chapter of Rashford’s story at his boyhood club may soon be written. Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag only managed to get fleeting moments of brilliance out of a player who now appears to be heading for the United exit door. Yet those who have tried to discover if the 27-year-old striker is as good as his salary suggests he should be have done so knowing the star at the centre of this poker game held most of the aces.
Rashford became a brand and an icon for the TikTok generation when he was put forward by the team around him as a champion of the working class, fighting to extend free school meals for under-privileged kids into the summer break and even getting a call from British prime minister Boris Johnson when his campaign brought about a change in government policy. Walk into any bookshop in England and you will see books with Rashford’s name as the author offering guidance for youngsters entitled You Are A Champion and You Can Do It . He is also listed as the author of a series of novels entitled The Breakfast Club Adventures and boasts a social media following that ensured he was cast as a voice for a youthful English nation as much as a United striker.
And that may have been where his story started to go astray. Such was the power and influence Rashford had at United that his managers were fully aware of his position of strength. United’s owners wanted and needed the club’s No 10 to be part of their wider brand, which was a big reason why he was given a £300,000-a-week contract in the summer of 2023, with the player promoted as a more significant figure at the club than the man he was meant to be calling boss.
Since Rashford secured that huge cash windfall, his image has taken a battering as his professionalism on and off the field has been questioned to the point that his sporting image is now almost as toxic as it was once radiant. So much so that as United begin to try and offload a player who has become more trouble than he is worth, the list of clubs willing to sign Rashford will be limited. Ten Hag and the latest United manager, Ruben Amorim, have failed to get Rashford to live up to his status and in the opinion of former Rangers striker and Ibrox boss Ally McCoist, the United managers’ failure to get the best out of the striker might not have been capable of doing any more to arrest his decline.
Ally McCoist is glad he is no longer a manager Speaking exclusively to the Sunday World , McCoist reflected that the power Rashford had due to his celebrity status is an example of how managers are no longer in control of all aspects of their players. “It has become a lot more complicated for managers these days and the Rashford situation has highlighted that,” began McCoist. “Let’s be honest, football has changed, society has changed, so while we may have got a clip around the earhole from our manager, and indeed from some of our team-mates, if we were not pulling our weight, those days are gone.
“I’m not saying Rashford is not pulling his weight, as I don’t know the story behind the scenes at United, but senior players always used to step up and tackle a someone head-on if he wasn’t doing it where it mattered most. “When I was playing, the manager was the boss at the club and what he said went. “Now they all have directors of football and all kinds of different people who the players and their agents deal with.
“The manager’s position within football clubs has been weakened, so it is a lot harder for the guy on the touchline. “It’s one of the reasons why I work in the media and not as a manager now, that’s for sure.” Read more When pondering what Ten Hag and Amorim could have done to change the path of Rashford’s United story, McCoist suggests that a frank exchange may have been the only way forward.
“The first thing Amorim needed to do with Marcus Rashford was have an hour with him, sit him down and ask him where he is at. Has he decided to leave the club?” “Then you tell him where you are and where you see his future in your team. Then it can develop from there.
“From the outside looking in, you have to say it seems like a parting of the ways would be best for all parties. We all just want to see Marcus Rashford playing with a smile on his face and scoring goals again. “I’ve not seen that for the last 18 months and it’s criminal for a boy of that age not to be enjoying playing football because it should be the best job in the world.
” McCoist is right to suggest the rebranded responsibilities of a manager have radically changed over the last couple of decades, as he reflected on his former boss Walter Smith, who operated in a very different climate. “The managers I worked for were brilliant and while they may claim they treated every player the same, they didn’t really,” added the former Scotland striker. “In life, you don’t treat everyone the same, that’s the reality.
People are different and some people need to be treated in a different way to others. “Some react better when they have an arm around them and others respond to a gee-up. “Managers and coaches these days have that balancing act to find and it’s harder than ever given the world we live in now and the way we have to be so careful in everything we say and do.
“We don’t have Jock Stein and Alex Ferguson-style managers who were brilliant managers and brilliant men, but they would have the ability to change the way they approached a challenge when required. “That might mean being stern with a player, or it might have meant giving him the arm around the shoulder, if that was needed. “I look at someone like Walter Smith and he had that balance you need as a manager to keep players onside, but these lads need to be asked to play sometimes now, which is amazing from someone who played when I did.
“It has become extremely difficult for managers because the one thing that has changed more than anything over the last 20 to 25 years is player power. “These lads are big assets for a business now and they know the manager is under pressure to get the best out of them. That’s a change in the balance of power.
” McCoist is one of many former managers who opted to walk away from the game after concluding that the man on the touchline no longer has the control he needs to keep his millionaire employees in check. As Amorim has discovered in a brutal first two months as United manager, the best-laid plans can be unpicked in double quick time if the players are not willing to come with you on the journey. Read more.
