Marcus Rashford and Aston Villa need each other desperately. We really hope it works out and d’you know what? It just might.
Rashford announced his desire for a “new challenge” in mid-December and an already small pool of clubs vying to sign him has dwindled in the six weeks since by virtue of the hugely limiting requirements to acquire his services.
He wants to remain in europe’s top five leagues, meaning a move to Saudi Arabia or Turkey was ruled out at an early stage. We suspect West Ham were similarly deemed as being beneath Rashford. Paris Saint-Germain’s move away from signing star names cut off that avenue. AC Milan only had space for one non-EU player and plumped for Kyle Walker. His dream move to Barcelona required multiple exits amid doubts as to whether they had the levers required to avoid further embarrassing registration snafus.
The Old Trafford wantaway was staring down the barrel of six months of ill-feeling and limited game time at his boyhood club in a losing battle to win round a manager that wasn’t for moving.
Having presumably had his knuckles rapped by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ruler on the back of claiming Rashford was so sh*t in training that a 63-year-old goalkeeper could do better on the left wing, Ruben Amorim insisted that the door was open to his return to the team.
But that never felt like anything other than an enforced U-turn to placate the INEOS penny-pinchers who can’t have been best pleased with the head coach’s assertion that one of their most highly-valued assets who they wanted out of the club couldn’t be arsed with rondos or that thing where they snatch bibs off each other.
But just when all hope looked lost, Villa came calling. Personal terms are sorted and Villa are set to cover a significant portion of his £325,000-per-week wage, with the option to buy fee thought to be the only detail left to be ironed out.
Rashford should probably buy Jhon Duran a beer, possibly his last one for a while with the Colombian signing for Saudi side Al Nassr for £64m to open up a spot in the squad for the Manchester United star, who looks set for his Villa debut against Tottenham in the FA Cup next weekend thanks to a timely injury to Ollie Watkins.
The Villa striker will surely now stay despite Arsenal interest following Duran’s departure, but he was taken off at half-time against Wolves having pulled up with a hamstring problem. He barely got going before he was substituted, with his very apparent fatigue at Molineux shared by his teammates in another post-Champions League lull.
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Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s early goal and Matheus Cunha’s stoppage-time strike secured victory for the relegation-battling hosts and stretched Villa’s winless run after midweek european games to seven, with this their fourth away defeat to go with three home draws.
The lack of depth is an obvious problem, and Rashford, along with Donyell Malen, gives Unai Emery much-needed options to prevent them sliding down the Premier League table while maintaining focus on the Champions League.
It could be said that any player joining a club in such dire need is little more than a warm body, and the last-gasp nature of the move for Rashford doesn’t help in fighting that contention, but had Villa made a play for the England international early in the window we would all have been nodding along at a sage move from a club where he could really shine.
As sporting director Monchi said earlier this week, when he revealed their interest in Chelsea’s Joao Felix and PSG’s Marco Asensio, Emery is an expert in “recovering talent”, and there may not be a player in world football who’s performance levels have dipped as far below his peak as Rashford’s right now.
We would love to see him get back to his best and playing for Aston Villa under Emery feels like an excellent opportunity for him to rediscover the level which previously saw him tipped with £100m transfers.
It may be a marriage of desperation but it’s also one which makes a helluva lot of sense for everyone involved.
