Marcus Rashford - signed on loan (injured - out for season?)

[Hookeysmith]

Rashford’s heading back to Old Trafford.

Apparently he's needed to run the free meals scheme for staff.

Are there any staff left to feed?

A billion in debt and they sack the dinner ladies.
Implosion could not happen to better club

[SaddVillan]

Rest assured, Offshore Jim and his acolytes/Ineos hatchet team will still be spending big.

It would be pretty amusing if the "minions" went on strike for the next home game in solidarity with those who've been given the boot.

[SaddVillan]

From The Athletic

IS RASHFORD ON THE RIGHT PATH?

There’s a lot of narrative around Marcus Rashford.

When things were going wrong at Manchester United, the story was about his decline, about the kid who was the future once but, for reasons too varied and nuanced to boil down into responsible talking points, had become persona non grata at Old Trafford.

Now, having moved to Aston Villa on loan, the story is revival, rejuvenation, a change is as good as a rest, that maybe a new environment would breathe new life into a career that was going off the rails.

As such, it’s been tempting to lean into whichever narrative you prefer, and to over-emphasise any incident that supports whatever point of view you take.

Rashford has only made four appearances for Aston Villa since joining them on loan in January, 181 minutes on the pitch in which he hasn’t yet scored a goal, a sample size far too small to draw significant conclusions. If you are using that as proof that he is ‘back’, however you want to define that, then you have drunk too much from the narrative cup.

But it is at least nice to see him playing football again, to see him as part of a decent football team and away from United. Whatever the reasons for his decline, it’s clear he needed to get out of his boyhood club.

It was incredibly sad to watch, to remember how good he once was and see a facsimile of Rashford play more and more listlessly and be shifted more and more to the periphery.

He registered two assists in Aston Villa’s win over Chelsea, prodding across the penalty area twice for Marco Asensio to score two goals. You can’t necessarily credit him with carving open the Chelsea defence and creating two chances from nothing, particularly the second which owed more to suspect goalkeeping than brilliant forward play.

But he looked like some of his vigour had returned. Every time he got the ball in that wide-left channel, you shifted a little further forward in your seat. You could hear the anticipation in the crowd. When he did that in the low points at United, you flinched slightly and hoped he didn’t embarrass himself.

Here he was quick, dynamic, direct. He was even tracking back and helping out his defence, something that was a key source of frustration at United.

His team-mates seem to enjoy having him around, too. “Every time he got the ball he was dangerous,” Youri Tielemans told Sky Sports after the game.

“Marcus is someone who can threaten everyone one-versus-one and even one-versus-two. He is very important for us in the way he plays because he gives us something different on the left-hand side.”

Rashford is not yet “back”. But, at the very least, it’s encouraging that he seems to be on the right path.

[eamonn]

Who wrote that, was it their Yanited correspondent? Doesn't seem nuanced enough to be Tanswell.

[Garyth]

Who wrote that, was it their Yanited correspondent? Doesn't seem nuanced enough to be Tanswell.

indeed. Also, not enough data.

[LostInMunich]

Who wrote that, was it their Yanited correspondent? Doesn't seem nuanced enough to be Tanswell.

indeed. Also, not enough data.

Also, dumb. He claims the second chance owed more to poor goalkeeping than to Rashford's attacking skill. The goal owed something to a keeping error, but you can't use that error to diss the assist.

It's just another story that was only written because it's Marcus Rashford: a blurring of the boundaries between sport journalism and celebrity journalism.

[Olneythelonely]

“Prodding” the ball across for the two assists, tells you all you need to know about which narrative this journalist prefers.

[PaulTheVillan]

I bet he's bored of reading about himself.

[cdbearsfan]

The article seems to basically be saying "it's too early to judge whether he's back", which is fair enough, but begs the question of why bother writing the article at this point, then.

[Dave]

The article seems to basically be saying "it's too early to judge whether he's back", which is fair enough, but begs the question of why bother writing the article at this point, then.

I guess to (a) counter the narrative from the weekend that two assists against Chelsea means that he is "back" and (b) because a sports journalist doesn't really have the luxury of saying "well, nothing to really write about today so we'll just not bother updating this website that people pay us to read".

[Somniloquism]

It appears to be part of a round up of the weeks "biggest questions" along with "Did we ever think the title race would be this… undramatic?" and "What’s wrong with Palmer?" by whoever Nick Miller is.

In the latter about Cole, he came up with this gem after rubbishing Rashford's assists. "He also hasn’t registered an assist since December 1, 15 games ago. Again, very concerning on the face of things, but assists are a tricky thing because they rely on others doing their jobs."

[cdbearsfan]

I reckon there are probably other things he could have written about. Look forward to today's Rashford update. "He probably attended training, might have got on a coach".

[Simon Page]

"There's a lot of narrative around Marcus Rashford; based on two-tenths of sod all but all of it leaning on cherry-picked evidence. Here's some more."

At best it's writer tries to be clever. Say people see what they want to justify their position then do the same, with the smug fallback of "see what I did there" if anyone criticises.

[London Villan]

Pity the narrative isn't something like this...

Bright start since signing - adds something to Villa, and looks to be enjoying his football.

Clearly getting match fitness back and has to work in Emery's system - where there are no passengers...

The door is very much open for him to kick-start his career at a well-run, big club.

[brontebilly]

Its a bit like that old quote attributed to the Chinese leader in the 70s about the success of French revolution - it's too early to say.

We are going to need exceptional performances from our attacking players tonight to get a result at Palace, might suit Rashford if we are sitting in a bit and he gets a chance to break on them.