Marcus Rashford £60m dilemma encapsulates major Manchester United problem

There have been multiple examples of wastefulness in the transfer market and poor leadership at Manchester United in recent years, but the Marcus Rashford situation stands alone.

According to multiple reports this past week, the 27-year-old United forward will be allowed to leave when the transfer window opens in January, and any exit would be hugely discounted.

When Rashford, who has scored 138 goals in all competitions for United since bursting on the scene as a teenager graduating from the club’s academy in 2015, enjoyed a 30-goal season under Erik ten Hag in 2022/23, his market value was around the £100m mark, borne from a newly-signed long-term contract, an age profile where he was in his prime, and form that was among the best in Europe.

For United, with Rashford having come through the youth system at the club, a sale at that price would have represented pure profit for the football club given that he held no residual book value on the club accounts.

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Understandably, United weren’t looking to offload him due to him appearing to find his groove again, but that season looked to have been the high watermark, and just 18 months on from the end of that banner season, United face the prospect of having to take a fraction of that £100m, perhaps even seeing 80% wiped off his value, potentially even more depending on the market.

The reason for that is in United handing Rashford his £325,000 per week deal in the summer of 2023, a contract that ties him to the club until 2028, they took a great risk, with the value of his contract meaning that he would have had to have continued in the same vein of form in order for other clubs to see the value in meeting his contractual demands should he move. United are still liable for some £60m in wages due to Rashford if he chose to stay put.

Rashford’s form has struggled badly, with just seven Premier League goals last season and four this season across 48 games. For the size of his deal the club aren’t getting value for money, and with them open to offloading him there won’t be too many willing bidders with wages at that level.

What that means for United is they will likely have to take an enormous hit on any transfer fee, even with him having four years left on his contract, because any suitors would not want to be on the hook for both a significant fee and wages given his output recently.

The pool of willing clubs would also likely be shallow. A £325,000-per-week deal is something that the Saudi Pro League clubs might be willing to engage in, but there won’t be too many from Europe’s major leagues who would be meeting those costs. Paris Saint-Germain have been linked in the past, and Rashford is still young enough to be seen as having room for improvement, but the approach at the Ligue 1 side has shifted under the owners QSI, with the Lionel Messi, Neymar Jnr and Kylian Mbappe era over, and the club more focused on developing younger talent. QSI are also rumoured to be open to an exit.

Tottenham Hotspur might be a destination, but they wouldn’t be shaking the wage structure to such an extent, while it’s hard to imagine any other of the so-called ‘big six’ would be engaged. Serie A clubs can’t afford it, only Bayern Munich could in Germany, and only Real Madrid could in Spain.

What it all means for United is that a player that has come through the system and had a value of £100m 18 months ago could now be ushered out for a fraction of that in order for the club to overcome the issue of the onerous contract that they handed out. It only serves to highlight how the need for football strategy was enormous, and the mistakes of recent years will take some time for the club to clean up, and it will likely lead how United approach the transfer market in the years to come.