How Marcus Rashford and Manchester United reached a sorry, confusing divorce

The striker has joined Aston Villa until the end of the season putting an end to United’s latest saga

Ruben Amorim was contemplating the notion of a humiliation. It wasn’t a question about Crystal Palace beating Manchester United – they do that most seasons, sometimes twice in a campaign now – or even about his side losing five of their last six home league games and trailing for much of the other to the bottom club.

Rather, he was asked if it would be humiliating if Marcus Rashford, the player he had banished even before his exile to the Midlands was rubberstamped, proves prolific on loan at Aston Villa. “Humiliating? It’s not embarrassing,” Amorim replied. “When you loan a player - and I don’t think it’s official - you expect him to play and to improve, so there is nothing humiliating there.”

There is a case that, given Amorim’s hardline approach has weakened United’s negotiating stance over a footballer who once looked their most valuable asset, it is vital Rashford does score goals aplenty for Villa. Should Amorim remain in charge at Old Trafford, there may be no way back, given the way that whatever is said in press conferences or on Instagram, the teamsheets have given little evidence of a rapprochement. It may have been a throwaway remark, and a very quotable one, when Amorim said last week he would rather put his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital on the bench than Rashford if the forward did not give his maximum every day. It nevertheless felt revealing.

Rashford is far from blameless, and not merely in going public in his wish to leave. The suspicion is that his misdemeanours are more numerous than has been acknowledged. He has long looked a man who found little joy in playing for United. And yet, even a few months ago, United may have priced him at £50m. Now he will go on a subsidised loan. His huge pay packet could make it hard for United to offload him for free on a permanent basis. But Villa have an option to buy as part of the loan deal; succeed there and there is a greater chance of a market for him, either in the Midlands or further afield.

His talent is such that he attracted interest this window from AC Milan, Juventus, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund; yet how much of it was opportunistic, looking for United to pay vast amounts to take Rashford off their hands? The idea of Barcelona tempted Rashford; the reality of Barcelona’s straitened finances made any deal difficult.

Meanwhile, United have paid Rashford more than £2m in wages since he last played. A 13-game absence has been unlucky for United; or they have been architects of their own misfortune. Amorim may argue, as Erik ten Hag did when expelling Jadon Sancho from the first-team picture, that he was prioritising standards, building the culture of the club. In each case, results scarcely suggested an improvement was fashioned by omitting a well-paid player.

United have lost six of those 13 games. In the Premier League, they have been beaten five times in nine outings, four of them at Old Trafford. Rashford’s preferred position is operating off the left, but in those 13 matches, United’s two main strikers scored a lone goal. Rasmus Hojlund got none, Joshua Zirkzee one. Even that was freakish, when Tottenham’s Fraser Forster passed the ball straight to Bruno Fernandes. By the Palace defeat, Amorim had resorted to using midfielder Kobbie Mainoo in the middle of his attack. A bizarre choice backfired.

Rashford has not played for Man Utd since December but will look to regain his form at Aston Villa (REUTERS)

Over those 13 games, only three United players scored more than once: defender Lisandro Martinez, Fernandes and Amad Diallo. They became horribly reliant on the latter two. Meanwhile, a player with 138 United goals, leaving him sandwiched by the greats Tommy Taylor and Cristiano Ronaldo on the all-time list, languished unused. It offered other echoes of last season’s Sancho saga, when a high-calibre attacker was ignored by a losing, low-scoring team.

By coincidence, Sancho and Rashford scored in Ten Hag’s first win. In November, Rashford got Amorim’s reign off to a flying start with a goal in 81 seconds. Now it looks a false dawn for each, and not merely because Amorim’s side now have a lone first-half goal in 14 matches, and even that was a penalty.

All of which heightens the need for a forward signing on deadline day, even if Mathys Tel, one option, has not scored all season, and Christopher Nkunku, who may prove another, is sadly injury prone. Meanwhile, Rashford looks set to play in the knockout stages of the Champions League, perhaps propelling his new club into next season’s competition as well.

Because if it often looks dangerous to loan high-class players to a rival, United’s plight is such that Villa are not really direct competitors. Unai Emery’s team are only eighth but eight points and five places above United. That is an indication of how United’s campaign is going wrong. Some of the fault for that could lie with Rashford but United’s plight worsened without him. Amorim can be eloquent but he is yet to explain how United have benefited from his absence.