Manchester United's despair of cutting the salary fund has forced them to significantly depreciate Marcus Rashford. The English striker has joined Barcelona on a one-year loan, with a broken buy clause. Previously, Rashford was left out of the plan by coach Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford.
The 27-year-old has rejected a fat-fied offer from Saudi Arabia, determined to wait for Barcelona and Man United to reach a deal. That eventually came true when Rashford flew to Barcelona to complete the final procedures for the transfer deal.
Blaugrana agreed to loan Rashford until the end of the 2025-2026 season, with a broken buy clause. Barca will pay Rashford his entire salary after he agreed a 15% discount from the current £325,000/week salary. They could also sign him for €30 million.
Earlier this summer, the Red Devils announced they were ready to sell Rashford to any club that would accept a £40 million offer. With the contract valid until June 2028, that price is not unreasonable, especially compared to the £100 million they were valuing him at in April 2024, when Paris St-Germain showed interest.
However, Man United's rapid change of stance towards Rashford clearly reflects the striker's dissatisfaction since Amorim made the decision to remove him from the plan. In the past few weeks, Rashford has been in the so-called Amorim "bomb squad" group, forced to train separately at the Carrington centre.
Rashford, along with former players Jadon Sancho, Antony, Alejandro Garnacho and Tyrell Malacia, were asked to return to the training ground after 5pm, as the rest of the first team had left.
This is a tough policy that has not received widespread support within the club, but has been applied to promote the liquidation of players who are no longer welcomed.
This tough policy may have contributed to Rashford's decision to leave, while Sancho is also preparing to move to Juventus. However, the deeper reason is probably Man United's desperation to liquidate the high-paid players that Amorim has frankly declared have no future at Old Trafford.
Rashford is not Barcelona's priority choice this summer. The Catalan giants once tried to chase Nico Williams from Athletic Bilbao, but the deal failed. They also paid attention to Liverpool's Luis Diaz, but were hampered by the Reds' tough stance in negotiations.
Rashford is also not guaranteed a starting spot at Barcelona. He may have played on the left in the familiar 4-3-3 formation of the team, but it should be noted that Raphinha has just had an impressive season in this position. Meanwhile, in the role of a striker, Rashford is likely to be only a reserve option for Robert Lewandowski.
