Manchester United selling Marcus Rashford has long been considered unthinkable. But if they are to try and offload him this January, it won’t be the first time they have had to nail down a price tag for the misfiring forward.
Rashford, who graduated from United’s academy and has scored 138 goals in 425 games for the club, has struggled to replicate the form which saw him net 30 times in a prolific 2022/23 campaign.
The 27-year-old has struck three in five since Ruben Amorim replaced Erik ten Hag in the dugout, but with the new manager seemingly favouring Alejandro Garnacho on the left, Rashford may find regular minutes hard to come by for the remainder of the campaign.
And United can ill afford to keep a player who earns a reported £375,000 a week if they are not making a regular impact. According to various reports, the club’s co-owners, INEOS, would be willing to entertain offers for Rashford this winter.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his sidekicks took charge of footballing operations at United in February, and they swiftly decided that Rashford would not be considered untouchable in the transfer market.
In fact, they set about establishing an asking price for the one-club man as early as April, with ESPN claiming that offers at or above £70million would be seriously considered due to the club’s financial position.
PSR rules constrained United to measured transfer business in the summer, with the likes of Scott McTominay and Aaron Wan-Bissaka sold to partly finance their signings. In January, Amorim is expected to be given only a modest transfer budget.
It remains to be seen whether the £70m benchmark United set in April has risen, fallen or stayed the same in the seven months since. Rashford finished last season with only single-figure goals in all competitions, though he has started this campaign with a respectable seven in 23 games.
Paris Saint-Germain are believed to hold a serious interest in the England international. And heading into this summer, United chiefs reportedly felt as though the Parisians were the only team in European football with the stomach to front Rashford’s asking price and wages.
The Manchester-born wide man only has six games remaining between now and January to show INEOS that he should be taken off the market, starting with a trip to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on Thursday.
