Marcus Rashford’s loan at Barcelona can be labelled a success after his goal clinched the La Liga title.
Manchester United will feel a lot more confident of a permanent deal being clinched than in the previous month.
Spanish press claimed Marcus Rashford justified his signing, with his performance in the El Clasico win over Madrid which sealed the title.
After the performance, Rashford stated his desire to remain at Barcelona, with his free-kick goal coming at the perfect time to endear himself to those decision makers.
Marcus Rashford evidently does not want to return to Man Utd – There is no way back for him surely?!
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Guillem Balague makes Marcus Rashford statistics point
United fans don’t want Rashford back if his Barcelona deal fails to transpire, which for some time looked possible considering the Catalan side’s frustrating negotiations.
But the season Rashford has had performance wise should surely seal a move for the forward.
Discussing Rashford’s chances of joining Barcelona permanently, Spanish football expert Guillem Balague told The Monday Night Club what he has made of the forward.
“His average goal contribution, which includes goals, assists, and penalties, is every 86 minutes – compared to Lamine Yamal’s 103 minutes and Raphinha’s 96 minutes.
“When you’re using that metric, he is actually statistically the best British player in their first season [in La Liga] – ahead of Gareth Bale and Jude Bellingham. Among foreign strikers that have played for Barcelona this century, only Luis Suarez did better in his first season there.”
Balague has also added why the deal works out as being so expensive, but also why he thinks it should happen.
“When you put it like this, you would assume Barcelona want to keep him. But, even though their perception has changed a bit in the past two or three weeks, the ideas of paying £30m for him is a lot for Barcelona.
“It will cost £30m to keep him, plus £30m more for his package of wages and so on, so it will cost around £60m for a player who is 28 years old with no real return. This is what is raising the doubt, really, but I don’t think it should be a debate.”
Rio Ferdinand said Rashford should stay in Barcelona, and it certainly feels like all parties will figure out a way to make this happen.
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Rashford’s ‘magician’ comments should annoy Manchester United
After winning the La Liga title, Rashford stated that if he was a magician he would stay at Barcelona which has been his clear desire all along, but it completely shuts a door of return to United.
Performance-wise, he is brilliant and United would be lucky to have him at left-wing. But this comment is annoying for a few reasons.
For a start, it disrespects Manchester United, one of the biggest clubs in world football, weakening our hand in negotiations with Barcelona and tells the world he doesn’t want to come back to Old Trafford.
But also, United are happy to sell Rashford this summer for the buy-option included, but as Balague has outlined, Rashford’s wage makes the deal so difficult to complete.
If Rashford was a magician perhaps he should convince himself to take lower wages to get the move he wants, instead of expecting United to cave into a cheaper transfer or another loan.
United will have plenty of suitors, but if Rashford wants Barcelona it seems he will need to make some hard decisions.
Outperforming Lamine Yamal and others just proves that United can’t be pushed over, £26m is a bargain as it is.
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