“I’m ready for new challenges,” Marcus Rashford told the world in December. Ruben Amorim responded with: “There are plenty of new challenges in the United shirt”. The 27-year-old has not worked at the match arena for his salary since the first part of December, it is precisely the salary that creates problems, but also new opportunities.
Rashford is heavily linked with a loan spell at Borussia Dortmund, with German media reporting it will all be confirmed on Thursday. However, the negotiations are not finished, with a weekly wage of £325,000 a week putting a spanner in the works for United, Rashford and the suitors.
United demand that the club that hires Rashford bear a large part of the wage cost, but as an example, AC Milan as one of the suitors will pay Rashford twice as much as the club’s highest paid, Alvaro Morata. It doesn’t rhyme.
Now The Times, BBC and other English media report that Rashford has made himself unavailable on matchday and is instead putting in extra training sessions to convince Amorim to give him another opportunity.
Rashford will work to ensure that this opportunity comes against Rangers in the Europa League. The 27-year-old has probably realised that a loan spell outside Old Trafford stands or falls on whether the new club is willing to take the gigantic wage bill, which will provoke the club’s own players.
It is now clear that both Rashford and Amorim will have to prepare for spending six days a week together for the rest of the season. United cannot afford not to make this working relationship work.
