Manchester United could bid farewell to at least one high-profile player before the close of the January transfer window.
The Red Devils aren’t often busy during the winter windows, but this one is shaping up differently.
United’s owners, including new shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe, need to sell to comply with the Premier League’s rules on Profit and Sustainability (PSR), and that could open the door for a high-value first-team player to move on.
Alejandro Garnacho has emerged as a target for Chelsea and Tyrell Malacia could join Juventus, but it is Marcus Rashford who is attracting the most interest.
Ruben Amorim ‘out of order’ for Marcus Rashford comments
Sunday saw Rashford publicly criticised by Ruben Amorim for a lack of effort on and off the pitch. The United manager suggested he would rather play his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach over the 27-year-old winger. A damning assessment and one Mark Ogden believes went too far.
“I think what he said about Rashford on Sunday, I think was out of order actually,” he told ESPN UK.
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“I think he’s quite right to say he needs to play better and concentrate better and focus better and live his life better but to say you’d rather play your 60-year-old goalkeeping coach was humiliating for Rashford and it was too strong.”
And following Amorim’s harsh words, at a time when United want to move the struggling forward on, Ogden suspects the club’s owners won’t be pleased with their manager’s recent decision to go public.
Ineos won’t be impressed
Although many would’ve enjoyed hearing such unprecedented honesty from a manager, there is no denying Amorim’s comments have damaged Rashford’s reputation and brand.
“I can’t imagine people at United upstairs will be thinking ‘Well done, Ruben’ because what you’ve done there is you’ve basically halved his value,” he added.
“You’ve basically said to any club that wants to take him ‘We’re so desperate to get rid of Marcus Rashford that we’ll take any contribution towards his wages’.
“United won’t say that publicly but what Ruben Amorim said has basically burned through any prospect that United could get a reasonable fee for Rashford or get some club to pay a significant chunk of his wages because he’s clearly not got a future there so any interested club will be thinking ‘Why should we offer you half his wages when you don’t want him?’
It’s hard to argue with Ogden’s assessment of the situation.
Amorim’s comments detailing Rashford’s lack of effort behind the scenes has overplayed United’s hand and weakened their position in the transfer market.
It’s well known — Rashford’s wages are in excess of £300,000-a-week, and now other clubs know the forward has little future under his manager, they’ll be less inclined to meet the Red Devils’ financial demands.
Amorim’s comments have certainly added a new dynamic to an already intriguing transfer saga and one that could now rumble on to the final hours of Monday’s deadline.
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