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

[adrenachrome]

Like pretty much everything the guardian writes about football that's a massive pile of smug bullshit.

Agreed, and not just football, either.

[PeterWithe]

I thought it was worth reading, he's here now so will get support, but if he'd have joined someone else I'd be nodding in agreement with a lot of it.

[AV84]

Who knows where this will end? Maybe when enough managers have fallen, enough idle senior players been slayed, death will finally be satisfied. But it is also important to remember Rashford didn’t make any of this happen, that the Manchester United Effect was inflicted on him too.

Rashford was overplayed, overhyped, over-anointed as a very young man. His physical grace, his basic skills, his star power were misleading. He looked ready, but wasn’t ready. He never had time to grow, was expected to be The One right from the start, and did his best to keep running from there to here, as managers, teammates, systems, regimes came and went. A saner club and a saner surrounding industry would surely have made a better Rashford.

There is still plenty of hope here. Villa are a great club, Emery an excellent manager. Rashford is talented enough to make this work. It will require discipline, hunger and a degree of personal and professional development. But he deserves a chance to find out how good he is; and above all a chance to be happy, nine years into one of the stranger sporting lives.

This bit sounds right though. A very talented player who was thrust into the media spotlight for reasons other than his football, combined with the continued downfall of the club, and a weird public/media vendetta against him. This should just be another January transfer, but we'll be under extreme scrutiny now, just as he will.

[PeterWithe]

This bit sounds right though. A very talented player who was thrust into the media spotlight for reasons other than his football, combined with the continued downfall of the club, and a weird public/media vendetta against him. This should just be another January transfer, but we'll be under extreme scrutiny now, just as he will.

Maybe, or maybe without the ManU connection and clicks, he wont be that newsworthy?

[AV84]

This bit sounds right though. A very talented player who was thrust into the media spotlight for reasons other than his football, combined with the continued downfall of the club, and a weird public/media vendetta against him. This should just be another January transfer, but we'll be under extreme scrutiny now, just as he will.

Maybe, or maybe without the ManU connection and clicks, he wont be that newsworthy?

He's still their player though, and they're still a mess. The only way it goes away, I think, is if he does well here and they miraculously start doing well too. There's very little to write about him then. If he's good here and they continue as they have been, or he flops and they start being brilliant, or he's bad and they're still bad, he's still a ManU player and they'll keep writing about him.

I think we're probably a better club for protecting players though. I don't know that a lot of Duran's antics were that well known outside of fans of the club, for example. Players do a certain amount of promo, but none of them seem to be actively seeking game or attention beyond their football achievements. So maybe they will get bored of him and move onto whoever the next player Amorim points the finger at. My moneys on Hojlund.

[edgysatsuma89]

I thought it was worth reading, he's here now so will get support, but if he'd have joined someone else I'd be nodding in agreement with a lot of it.

Yeah, I didn't think it was that bad, and I'm not a big fan of Ronay.

[Monty]

I like Ronay. Liew is mostly good, has his bad days. Wilson's gone quite downhill I think, but is grumpy about the right stuff.

[Goldenballs]

Three assists in his past 48 Premier League games is pretty shite.

He allegedly has/had addiction issues. Not sure if that kind of thing can be discussed here but shouldn't be too hard to find on Google. Could also just be made up Internet bollocks.

[Mister E]

Who knows where this will end? Maybe when enough managers have fallen, enough idle senior players been slayed, death will finally be satisfied. But it is also important to remember Rashford didn’t make any of this happen, that the Manchester United Effect was inflicted on him too.
Rashford was overplayed, overhyped, over-anointed as a very young man. His physical grace, his basic skills, his star power were misleading. He looked ready, but wasn’t ready. He never had time to grow, was expected to be The One right from the start, and did his best to keep running from there to here, as managers, teammates, systems, regimes came and went. A saner club and a saner surrounding industry would surely have made a better Rashford.

There is still plenty of hope here. Villa are a great club, Emery an excellent manager. Rashford is talented enough to make this work. It will require discipline, hunger and a degree of personal and professional development. But he deserves a chance to find out how good he is; and above all a chance to be happy, nine years into one of the stranger sporting lives.

This bit sounds right though. A very talented player who was thrust into the media spotlight for reasons other than his football, combined with the continued downfall of the club, and a weird public/media vendetta against him. This should just be another January transfer, but we'll be under extreme scrutiny now, just as he will.

Couldn't this have been written about other 'local boy makes good' individuals? - Grealish comes to mind but the history of football in my time is littered with prodigious talent being distracted by sex n' drugs n' rocknroll. Many find redemption, and maybe the boy Marcus is starting his road to redemption by coming to B6 for 4 months ...

[Steve67]

Only the very last paragraph is relevant. The rest flip flops and can’t make its mind up. Oh, and you can make of statistics what you want.  Manchester United is a train wreck, I’m sure he’s glad to be at a functional club with a proper manager.  Amorim is way out of his depth.

[Bosco81]

For someone who doesn’t seem to say much, a lot of people have opinions about him, and are more than willing to share them with you.

Barney Ronnay is usually quite good to read, but that article seems a bit of a hatchet job.

I just hope Rashford has planned his route to Bodymoor Heath well, it’s not the easiest place to find normally, let alone with journalists throwing drawing pins under your car, and leaving oil cans on the road, so they can write the follow up story.

[lovejoy]

Presumably the club have done their homework on the player and whatever baggage that he brings with him is not going to be a surprise and they have a plan to tackle it. It will also be interesting what shape he is in, as he’s not played for a while it make take a little time to reach fitness but as this is a relatively short loan we should really be expecting him fairly soon.

[Olneythelonely]

He allegedly has/had addiction issues. Not sure if that kind of thing can be discussed here but shouldn't be too hard to find on Google. Could also just be made up Internet bollocks.

I’m not convinced it should be. I’ve searched on Google and none of it convinced me it’s more than made up bollocks.

Also, not sure some of us will need extra ammunition to call him a wanker if he puts in the odd poor performance.

[RamboandBruno]

For someone who doesn’t seem to say much, a lot of people have opinions about him, and are more than willing to share them with you.

Barney Ronnay is usually quite good to read, but that article seems a bit of a hatchet job.

I just hope Rashford has planned his route to Bodymoor Heath well, it’s not the easiest place to find normally, let alone with journalists throwing drawing pins under your car, and leaving oil cans on the road, so they can write the follow up story.

Yea agree about Ronay, but also the hatchet job comments on this occasion

[SamTheMouse]

I like the Guardian's football coverage. And there's nothing wrong with that article that I can see.