Marcus Rashford has angrily hit out at claims he held talks with a football agency to represent him in a January move away from Manchester United.

Rashford recently declared himself “ready for a new challenge” and has not played in United’s past five matches, with head coach Ruben Amorim leaving him out of the match-day squad in four of those.

But the 27-year-old has emphatically denied being in talks with the CAA Stellar agency over switching his representation to work with the intermediaries who helped represent Gareth Bale in his £86 million move to Real Madrid in 2013, as well as Jack Grealish’s £100 million transfer to Manchester City.

Rashford has been represented by his brother, Dwaine Maynard, during his career and lists his company D N May Sports Management on his social media platforms, which he used to insist there have been no talks with other agents.

“Been a lot of false stories written over past weeks, but guys this is getting ridiculous – never met with any agency and don’t have plans to...” Rashford wrote.

The Sun newspaper had reported Rashford was stepping up his efforts to move away from Old Trafford by speaking to other agencies. His future has been in sharp focus since Amorim axed him from his match-day squad for the Manchester derby, citing the player’s standards on and off the training pitch.

“For me what is important is the performance in training, the performance in game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with team-mates and push team-mates,” Amorim said at the time. The United head coach has also questioned the people representing Rashford, suggesting they are “making choices that are not the first idea from the player”.

United will look to offload players before bringing in any reinforcements during the transfer window, although the market for Rashford is limited because of his current salary of more than £300,000 and diminishing resale value at the end of his next long-term contract.

Amorim joined a club close to their limit on spending under the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules, and it is anticipated to be a quiet January. The Portuguese coach is sticking to his 3-4-3 formation that won him titles at Sporting Lisbon, but there are fears after recent defeats that he does not have the players at United for the system.

“I have to sell my idea, I don’t have another one,” he admitted after the defeat by Newcastle on Monday, the sixth loss in eight games. He has so far recorded wins in the Premier League against Manchester City and Everton and has admitted that United are in a relegation fight.

“When you don’t have confidence you have a structure that can hold these difficult moments, but we don’t have that because we didn’t have the time to build that. Sometimes like against Everton you don’t have clear quality in the game but you score at the right moments in the game and the perception changes. You have to know that and focus on the next game.”