THE question now is not what Marcus Rashford can prove to Manchester United — but what the club can prove to him.
Things have changed so much at Old Trafford over the past 6½ years that the previously unthinkable is now a stark reality.
Rashford loves the Man Utd badge but can the club do enough for him?Credit: Getty Images – Getty
Can a player at the very top of his game achieve all he wants to with this club?
Win titles, challenge in Europe, join the legends of the game?
The big names are no longer kicking down the door to get here. Instead, some are trying to kick it down to get out.
Keeper David De Gea was — Paul Pogba still is.
Midfielder Pogba, 26, simply does not see Old Trafford providing him with the platform to add to those four titles won in Italy.
The French World Cup winner should be regarded among the world’s best midfielders now.
The malaise at United has brought him down, although he has not done himself any favours.
As part of a great Juventus team, he was great. Put him in a struggling United side and he is not so clever.
He believes the club is three years behind Manchester City and Liverpool and does not want to wait while they play catch-up.
Rashford’s record at Utd speaks for itself
So when does the point come when Rashford looks at it and wonders if this is where he can truly fulfil his potential?
As a United great, yes, but with the honours to go with it? Probably not. This is a club that will not have even challenged for the title in seven years come the end of this season.
It is very easy to see that stretching to a decade.
Rashford’s camp have already been courted by Real Madrid just over a year ago.
That alerted Barcelona too and the England forward, 22, is a lot better player now than then.
Dreams of European triumph are a lot more likely to be realised in Spain than in Salford.
COURTED BY REAL AND BARCA
They are a lot more likely to be realised across the other side of town or up in Liverpool, too, but we know that move will never happen.
It was only last July that Rashford agreed to a new four-year contract with the option of a further year.
That immediately puts his price up. But when a player wants to go, there is often little a club can do.
Only an issue with a fax machine on transfer deadline day in August 2015 denied De Gea a dream move back to his home city of Madrid.
To Real rather than Atletico — where he began his career.
Since then, Real have won LaLiga, plus three Champions League titles in a row.
And De Gea has three winners medals since then, too, in the League Cup, FA Cup and Europa League.
During that time he has been widely regarded as the world’s best goalkeeper — and just as well for United he was.
But in nine years at United he has lifted just one Premier League title.
And the ship may have now sailed for the 29-year-old to land another one somewhere else, or a Champions League trophy.
Pogba does not want to see that ship go over the horizon while he should be at his peak.
So you wonder if the day will also come when Rashford has a big decision to make.
Maybe even this summer…
Striker Erling Haaland’s decision to join Borussia Dortmund rather than United, however much agent Mino Raiola had to do with it, will have sounded enough alarm bells as to where the club are at.
ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING
It will be interesting to see this summer whether Dortmund’s England winger Jadon Sancho believes his career is better served staying there, too, rather than heading to Old Trafford.
Saturday brought up Rashford’s 200th appearance for United — 137 of them starts.
His goals in the 27th minute, as he steered home a Juan Mata cross, and unstoppable 52nd- minute penalty, took his haul to 19 for the season and 64 in his United career.
Frenchman Anthony Martial also headed home in the 54th minute before substitute Mason Greenwood completed the scoring against a poor Norwich team.
Afterwards Canaries manager Daniel Farke talked about Rashford in glowing terms.
The German said: “He is already now one of the best offensive players in the whole of Europe.
“With his pace he is so hard to handle and also his technique is fantastic.”
With Tottenham talisman Harry Kane now injured, Rashford is England’s best available striker.
So the Red Devils star has to be the man to lead the Three Lions’ line in their friendlies against Italy and Denmark on March 27 and March 31.
In June it is the Euros and a good tournament will raise his profile still further.
Rashford is still young and getting better all the time.
You could argue he has plenty of time and there is no need to rush things — but careers at the very pinnacle are there and gone in a flash.
Rashford would love that time to be with a successful United, but right now a successful United seems a very distant dream.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sees traits in Marcus Rashford similar to Cristiano Ronaldo
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
