Arsenal have been linked with a move for Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford, but the striker has stated that he will be “heartbroken” if he leaves Old Trafford for the Gunners or anyone else.
As his World Cup hopes dwindle, Marcus Rashford will have to reflect long and hard on his lifelong love affair with Manchester United.
Rashford has started just four Premier League and Champions League games since Christmas, and he has been substituted in all of them. He has sat on the bench for almost the entirety of Ralf Rangnick’s tenure, and has only been used as a substitute in seven games.
When Fowler was at the peak of his powers with Liverpool, as a young striker with the world at his feet playing for the famous club in his birth city, he faced a similar agonising dilemma. The forward insisted that he “didn’t want to leave Liverpool, I loved the club,” but with the World Cup looming the following summer, he shocked the football world by joining Leeds in 2001.
“I loved Liverpool – I still love Liverpool – and I really didn’t want to move, but when it came down to it, I felt I was left with no choice,” he said.
I was at the pinnacle of my career, but I felt I was being treated so unfairly that I felt I needed to leave for the sake of my sanity as well as my career. It’s not an easy decision to make. I was heartbroken when I had to leave Liverpool and never fully accepted the decision; I can imagine how Marcus feels. He loves United as much as I love Liverpool, and he’ll be thinking that he can’t abandon the club where he grew up. But he has to make a big decision because he isn’t getting any game time. That stings. It always hurts, and it used to ruin me every time I was left out.
“It’ll hurt him.” And it will drive home how he is currently stalled. And he’ll be wondering if he needs to relocate to get the game time and support he requires. He’s a bright young man who understands how things work.
He knows that if he doesn’t get regular game time, his form will suffer, and he knows that if he does come into a less-than-fluent team, it will be difficult to regain that form.”
