Marcus Rashford: The fall of a Manchester United icon

Days before the Carabao Cup final in February 2023, when Rashford was scoring for fun and leading United's exciting, if brief, renaissance under Erik ten Hag, he explained what was behind his resurgence in form. The striker had made a huge transformation compared to the previous year, when he had struggled under Ralf Rangnick and was dealing with a number of issues, including a long recovery from back surgery and the emotional pain of missing his penalty in England's Euro 2020 final shootout defeat by Italy.

"Football is probably 95 percent your mentality. That gives you the baseline to perform," he said. "There are a lot of players that have ability – that’s why they play at the top level. But what sets them apart is the mentality. I’ve been on both sides of it. I understand the strength of it and the value. I’m concentrating a lot more on keeping myself in that headspace and it’s needed in order to win games and trophies."

Rashford's mentality back then was one of his greatest strengths, and he marked the majority of the 30 goals he scored in that stunning 2022-23 campaign by pointing to his head. He had done a lot of the hard work that previous summer, when he headed to Nike's headquarters in Oregon for a crash course in condition and strength training to work on his explosivity. Other examples of him using his brain were seen in him taking on the British government over school meals, advocating for child literacy and writing children's books with titles such as 'You are a champion' and 'You can do it'.

But in the last two years, he has been back - as he would put it - on the other side of the mentality divide. His mental state was seen as being so bad that Ruben Amorim left him out of his matchday squad for the best part of six weeks, repeatedly citing his attitude to training. In the eyes of the coach, Rashford's mentality was so poor that he would rather pick his 63-year-old, overweight goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital than the 27-year-old.

The shift in perception around Rashford has been a shock to everyone in football, and in last week's episode of Gary Neville's Stick to Football podcast, Wayne Rooney, Roy Keane, Jill Scott and Ian Wright all expressed their dismay at the situation. "Not training, not putting in the right attitude doesn't cross your mind," said Wright, while ex-England women's international Scott said she could not imagine the embarrassment of team-mates thinking she were lazy.

Rooney revealed that he has urged Rashford to leave United on a couple of occasions. He said: "I've spoken to Marcus a couple of times and I've given him my thoughts and my opinion. I said you need to leave the football club because whatever is going on in his life and whatever is going on at Manchester United, he's not the same. It's not him. So I said for him, to have a fresh start, he needs to leave the club. The fact that your manager is coming out and saying that you are not training right is crazy."

As ever, Keane took the toughest line. "Whatever’s going on with players leaving, months left on contracts, a player who doesn’t train properly… I don’t understand it," he said. "You might as well leave me out of this conversation. Especially if you think he wants to move, which is more of a reason to train properly so when you go to a new club you’re up to speed and when you leave the club at least you showed a decent attitude. All these things getting thrown at him. He must be ashamed."

Questions about Rashford's attitude to training beggar belief given his status as one of United's top earners after signing a contract less than two years ago that is worth £325,000 ($401k) per week until 2028. At the time, coming off the back of his best-ever season, there were no complaints among United supporters. Rashford's previous deal was due to expire in 2024 and there was a serious danger of him leaving for free and strengthening a major rival, in Europe or in England, while at the peak of his powers.

Rashford declared his love for United after signing the contract, aged 25, and looked forward to a long and prosperous future with the club. "I joined Manchester United as a seven-year-old boy with a dream. That same passion, pride and determination to succeed still drives me every time I have the honour of wearing the shirt. I've already had some amazing experiences at this incredible club, but there is still a lot more to achieve and I remain relentlessly determined to win more trophies in the years ahead," he said.

"As a United fan all my life, I know the responsibility that comes with representing this badge and feel the highs and lows as much as anyone. I can assure you that I will give everything to help the team reach the level we are capable of, and I can feel the same determination around the dressing room. I couldn't be more excited for the future under this manager."

United fans were equally excited after winning a first trophy in six years and returning to the Champions League, and Rashford looked set to be the flagbearer of this exciting new era, his future locked down. However, that contract appears to have been his undoing, and rather than the deal bringing him more responsibility, he began to behave less seriously and with more recklessness upon signing it.

For his summer holidays in 2023, Rashford returned to the United States, but not to work on conditioning, and rather to go partying. There's nothing wrong with footballers letting their hair down in their rare and short periods off, but when the new season began, Rashford did not look as motivated as before or as mentally switched on.

He went to a nightclub hours after United's painful 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in the derby, a very bad look from the point of view of supporters and indeed for his then-manager Ten Hag, who called his actions "unacceptable". The Dutchman insisted at the time that Rashford had apologised and vowed not to make the same mistake again.

"He's very motivated to put things right. He's totally with us," he said in November 2023. "So he makes a mistake, but that doesn't say he's not fitting in. I see him every day in training, what he's doing. I know. Also off the pitch, how he lives."

Ten Hag's words implied Rashford's behaviour was a one-off, but the player's decision to go out two nights in a row in Belfast two months later while missing training suggested otherwise. So did a report in The Sun which detailed his fondness for going to casinos in Manchester's Chinatown district and playing poker while "knocking back beers". One source said: "Marcus loves the nightlife, but the concern is that he’s been doing just too much of it. His house has been a party house."

Stories of Rashford's nights out kept on being repeated among fans and increasingly infuriated supporters, who expected more professionalism from one of their own. Other media stories, such as him parking his Rolls Royce on double-yellow lines while jewellery shopping in Cheshire, painted a picture of a player who was increasingly out of touch, especially at a time when his and the team's performances were declining. He scored just eight times last season as United posted their lowest finish in Premier League history and crashed out of the Champions League in the group stage.

Amorim's arrival should have represented a fresh start for Rashford, although he had attracted negative headlines even before the coach had landed in Manchester for flying to New York during the international break to attend a basketball game. Amorim made it clear in an interview with Neville that he would expect higher standards, and backed his words up with actions by dropping Rashford from the squad for the Manchester derby. The main reason, according to The Athletic, was the forward going out two days before United's game with Everton. Rashford scored twice in the 4-0 win, but Amorim, understandably, did not want his players going out so soon before matches.

Rashford reportedly insisted his social life was not impacting his career, but his performances in the last 18 months suggest otherwise. Amorim dropped Alejandro Garnacho from the squad on that same day and told both players it was up to them to prove him wrong. Garnacho did so, knuckling down; Rashford, meanwhile, responded by telling the journalist Henry Winter that he was looking for a new challenge and was ready to leave the club. He has now got his wish with his escape to Villa, but it was surely not what he imagined when he signed that contract.

In the summer of 2023, Rashford had scored 123 goals for United and was 16th in the club's all-time scorers' list. He was ideally placed to chase down Rooney's record of 253 goals, especially in the form he was in at the time. But he has scored just 15 goals since. Rashford had United's history books in his sights, but blew his chance.

With all due respect to Villa and their emergence as one of the Premier League's best teams under Unai Emery, their history, prestige and global following pales in comparison to United's. Rashford also joins Villa with a lot to prove, meaning he will not be a guaranteed starter. There is the remote possibility that he rediscovers his old self at Villa Park and then feels the urge to return to United, but that seems unlikely at this stage.

It is not just Rashford that, in Keane's words, should be "ashamed" about the circumstances that have led to his departure. United should also feel embarrassed that one of their highest-paid players and top scorer just two years ago is now strengthening one of their rivals, especially at a time when United are starving for goals, having scored just seven times in their last eight league games. Why couldn't senior players and club staff do more to keep Rashford on the straight and narrow and prevent him from throwing his career away?

It is now up to Rashford to get back on the right side of the mentality barrier and get his career back on track. But if he can return to being the same player he was in 2023, there will be great frustration that he could not do so while at United, the club that made him.

Rooney summed it up when he said: "It's really sad, a local lad from Manchester, to see how it ends like this."