Nearly one month on from Ruben Amorim setting the wheels in motion for Marcus Rashford's Manchester United exit, we aren't much further down the line at all. Since being left out of the squad for Amad's derby heroics against City, how much has actually changed?

Rashford has been out, back in briefly, and then out again under the new United head coach. He has said publicly what most people thought, and what most people thought Rashford thought. The flock of offers hasn't come in.

Saudi Arabian sides made their stance known but were knocked back. Rashford is intent on getting back into the England setup and doesn't want to throw his career away just yet. At 27, he still has time left to make this 18-month spell a mere blip in the wider Rashford story.

But United and Rashford must surely be wondering, at this stage, how they move forward. There is still over three weeks to go of the January window but it would take some giant pieces to move, and move soon, for a significant deal to be done.

Milan and Juventus are said to be in the mix. West Ham are described as monitoring things. This is the current extent, though, and that raises questions.

United, who have been linked heavily with Victor Osimhen this month - some claimed that he was even close to moving to Old Trafford - know that keeping Rashford onside just isn't an option. They have a clock that is counting down and at the end of it is a black hole.

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Rashford cannot be a United player, at least not for six months, by the time the window shuts on February 3. These types of situation happen regularly in the European market. Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling at Chelsea over the summer were both cut out of the picture and left to scrap for something.

The damage that six months on the sideline can do to someone is no more apparent than with Chilwell. Then there is Osimhen. It was clear that he wouldn't be staying at Napoli early on in the window but actually getting something over the line is never as easy as it looks.

Faced with the prospect of one of the world's most in-demand forwards being left to rot for half a season, drastic measures were taken. A transfer to the Middle East never progressed, Paris Saint-Germain and Napoli couldn't agree on a price. Chelsea left it too late and wouldn't bow to his wage demands.

When the English and Italian window closed it looked like he was done. 12 Turkish Super League matches later, 10 goals and three assists as well with hardly a sweat, Osimhen is back on the radar.

He got his move thanks to the random transfer window ending points allowing for Galatasaray to save him. It has, so far, worked for both parties. Osimhen is scoring plenty and Galatasaray are unbeaten domestically.

Even if Osimhen was to leave this month - and the suggestions are that he will see out the year before completing a permanent summer move instead - he would have put Galatasaray in a strong position to win the league and progress in Europe as well.

His stock hasn't really fallen, and if anything it is a show of his character that he has performed so well despite the unorthodox and unexpected circumstances. For United and Rashford, this sort of deal will start to become more and more central to their thoughts as the window goes on.

The longer Juventus and Milan hold out and nothing progresses, the deeper it gets without Napoli pressing on towards a wage agreement, and the more days that are ticked off the calendar, something out of the box like this needs to be considered. United will have to get to their creative best in order to help Rashford, and just like Osimhen, it might benefit everyone.

If he was to go to Turkey, for example - and pushed with the prospect of not playing or getting 20 games in far from ideal conditions there really is only one winner - it could just see his value rise a bit as well.

It won't be the first port of call, understandably, as United and Rashford pursue a sale, but when teams across the land start to feel like there is a chance to do something that wasn't on four weeks ago, everyone must remain alive to it.