Barcelona were warned against signing Marcus Rashford in January.
Marcus Rashford completed a six-month loan to Aston Villa towards the end of the January transfer window. Prior to that, the Manchester United forward was linked with AC Milan and Barcelona.
The 27-year-old didn’t get the dream move to Barcelona he wanted. Instead, he will have to settle with living in Birmingham for the remainder of the season. It’s up to him from this point to prove himself worthy of a big move at this stage of his career.
Rashford is getting a fresh challenge away from United. Perhaps not the one he wanted, but now is the time to prove his critics wrong.
Otherwise, the critics will grow in numbers because Unai Emery has been able to get the best out of many players at Villa Park.
Marcus Rashford loan would have caused uproar at Barcelona
It was well-documented throughout the month that Rashford wanted to join Barcelona.
If that remains an objective for the struggling forward, Rashford will need to score goals and register assists at Villa. That is the only way he can turn his career around now with a club competing in the Champions League.
It is understood that the move fell through as Barcelona could not guarantee paying for his wages without risking punishment from La Liga due to their ongoing financial struggles.
According to Caralunhya Radio podcast, Barca Reservat, Barcelona wanted Rashford but their pursuit caused headaches internally.
The report claims the Barcelona dressing room was radically against Rashford’s potential arrival.
Some Barcelona players feared that the new contracts would be put on hold in order to sign Rashford.
This forced Barcelona to reconsider their pursuit of Rashford and he ended up at Villa.
Ditching Rashford pursuit and pursuing De Jong renewal
Barcelona’s decision to ditch attempts to sign Rashford means they can now focus on new deals for stars they want to keep at Camp Nou.
The La Liga giants are already making progress on that front after agreeing renewals for Ronald Araujo, Gavi and Pedri.
Inigo Martinez is expected to sign a new but Spanish publication Sport claims Barcelona manager Hansi Flick is pushing the club to reach fresh terms with Frenkie de Jong.
De Jong is no stranger to United fans after Erik ten Hag spent an entire summer chasing the Netherlands international before settling for Casemiro.
It raises the question of whether Barcelona would be able to offer fresh terms to several players if they signed Rashford on such a big salary.
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