Marcus Rashford has been linked with a departure from Man United ever since falling out of favour with their new boss, Ruben Amorim. Even though the new head coach has been at his media-savvy best to navigate through the situation, Rashford’s poor form further adds to the matter of him not being a stylistic fit to Amorim’s system.
And so, papers have been linking with several big-name sides both within and outside England. In Europe, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, and AC Milan have emerged as frontrunners, while in England, among many names, Tottenham have emerged as a possible destination.
So here we are, considering the prospect of slotting Marcus Rashford in Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs setup and see if this marriage could work at all.
Because of his current situation, it’s easy to forget how good a player Rashford can be and has been, so let’s start with what he brings to the table.
On his day, Rashford is nightmare incarnate for the defenders. He takes his defenders head on, goes past them like a hot knife through butter, and puts the ball in the net before the opposition has any chance to figure out what’s happened. He can operate out wide, but he can also operate off the centre, as he demonstrated in his 30-goal season in 2022/23, though drifting out wide is something he unquestionably has an affinity towards, especially on the left-hand side. Also, he is very good on penalties, which can’t be taken for granted.
When the Midas touch dries up, however, his lack of effort in troubling the opposition backline in the first build-up phase as well as a reluctance in coming back to defend is something that has been seen missing ever since he worked under José Mourinho, who criticised him for the same at the time. Owing to Man United’s own managerial upheaval and overall lack of stability, one can argue that it has been it has been hard for Rashford to properly grow as a player; it has been hard for every player that has played for the Red Devils in the last decade, for that matter.
But the bottom line remains that Rashford has a lot of chinks in his armour, which particularly put the negative light on him when things are not going well. This makes him particularly unequipped to thrive in a new environment like that of Spurs, which in itself is not doing much better at the moment, and one mustn’t forget the fact that Rashford has never switched clubs before; it’s going to be a tough ask wherever he goes.
In conclusion, we do not see Rashford working out at Tottenham in the long run.
Let’s consider a positive scenario for him: say Spurs manage to land him on a six-month loan deal by having United paying most of his salary—there’d be nothing to lose (though we do not see any club offering Rashford anywhere close to the £325,000-per-week package he has at United). And, looking to hit the ground running and shut his naysayers up, say Rashford has a goal contribution or two on debut.
The issue here remains one that has persisted with Rashford ever since the days of José Mourinho at United. His breakout phase under Louis van Gaal arguably remains the only time criticism was as non-existent as can be for a professional player at the top given how young he was and how early it was in his career.
Well, Rashford’s not young anymore. He turns 28 this year, and criticism regarding his off-ball work persists, and not without reason. That very off-ball work is something very crucial for Postecoglou, which he asks of all his players at every moment in the game. Even for the best proponents of such a game it’s a tough ask; for Rashford, it may very well be a step too far. And he would not be solely responsible for Spurs’ defensive issues, which we believe are likely to persist just enough to leave them mid-table in the Premier League. Soon enough, Postecoglou’s ire would land on Rashford and he would demand him to step up or leave the pitch, which he has done with his own players this season.
Now, there’s a very good chance Postecoglou himself gets the sack this season, so Rashford could again find himself under a new manager with a clean slate. But he’s unlikely to find a manager who’d come in and offer him the kind of environment he needs to revive his career.
At Spurs, Rashford won’t have a lack of coverage on him—he won’t have that anywhere in England, in fact. Every step he takes is set to be scrutinised multi-fold, but it does get easier for players that leave England.
Spurs have a lot of holes to fix in both the current and upcoming transfer windows. They are going to need reinforcements up front, yes, given the players they want to be rid of the ones they may end up losing to bigger clubs, but more importantly they need to reinforce their defence, then midfield, and then plan for the forward line. Experimenting with Rashford is a venture a club like PSG can afford with less to lose, relatively speaking, but Spurs have bigger fish to fry.
