The Marcus Rashford situation at Manchester United is the perfect example of when tragedy morphs into comedy. Rashford is so strongly persona non grata that manager Ruben Amorim intentionally made headlines by saying he would rather give a place on the bench to his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach, Jorge Vital.
Ouch! Kind of sad, but also kind of funny at the same time.
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“It’s the same situation for every player,” Amorim said. “If you do the maximum, if you do the right things – we can use every player. You can see it today [Sunday] on the bench – we miss a little bit of pace to go, to change the game, to move some pieces, but I prefer [it] like that. I will put Vital [on the bench] before I put a player that doesn’t give the maximum every day so I will not change that.”
According to the latest reports Rashford and Amorim are not even on speaking terms. Amorim only talks to Rashford when he speaks to the whole squad as a unit.
Obviously, the club needs to move him on, before the transfer window closes on Friday, but they can’t seem to find a trading partner. Naturally, it’s a task that becomes infinitely harder when you publicly state that the player has no value to you and your organization.
Now everyone else knows you’re desperate to sell, so what are they going to do? Lowball you in negotiations of course!
Another player who is likely to not be selected on Thursday is Manuel Ugarte. He is dealing with an unspecified knock of some sort.
Finally, Luke Shaw, Mason Mount and Jonny Evans remain sidelined for the longer haul.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.