“If you ever question my commitment to Manchester United, that's when I have to speak up,” wrote Marcus Rashford in his Players’ Tribune column last February.

"I grew up here. I have played for this club since I was a boy… If you start questioning my commitment to this club and my love for football then I'd simply ask you to have a bit more humanity."

The tone somewhat changed ten months later. Speaking about his future last month amid his four-game squad exile under new boss Ruben Amorim, Rashford delivered more ambiguous comments.

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“I think I’m ready for a new challenge and the next steps,” he said. “I’ve seen how other players have left in the past and I don’t want to be that person. When I leave I’ll make a statement and it will be from me.”

A new challenge where? At United or another club? Perhaps the answer lies in the usage of the phrase ‘when I leave’ rather than ‘if I leave’.

This ambiguity is a marker of how much the goalposts have shifted in the last four years. Back in December 2020, Rashford had made it plain that he wanted to stay at United for life.

“As a kid I've never looked beyond Manchester United in my mind, it wouldn't sit right for me to be pulling on another shirt,” he insisted. "I just want to do the best I can for the club whilst I'm here, so hopefully I'm here for the long term."

Amorim’s choice to leave Rashford out of four matchday squads over Christmas puts this plan in jeopardy. It looked so different two years ago.

The England star had just come back from the World Cup as England’s joint top-scorer in the tournament and would end the season by becoming the first United player in a decade to fire in 30 goals across a single club campaign. He was duly awarded a fresh five-year deal that summer.

Ever since that point, confidence has seeped out of the attacker like a puncture in a balloon that can’t be located. And now the gas is almost at empty.

One must be careful not to conflate underperformance and low self-esteem with a lack of commitment. Rashford clearly still cares about his standing at United given he has publicly rebuffed reports that suggested he has instigated contact with other clubs about possible January moves.

Furthermore, the news today that he has rejected approaches from Saudi Arabia and will ignore anything from Turkey underlines that Rashford cares about his career and is not thinking about easy money.

While almost all will argue this is the right mindset to adopt, it does make life more difficult for United to offload him on his current wages. Barcelona are in dire financial straits, Real Madrid don’t need him and he would struggle to get minutes at Bayern Munich.

Paris Saint-Germain, perhaps the only other feasible option, seems an obvious next step but it is unclear how much of his current salary they would be prepared to pay mid-season. Rashford might be facing up to an approaching alternate reality.

By rejecting offers from Saudi, the 27-year-old has made clear he is wanting to rebuild his career at a competitive European club. The truth is that he might need to take a pay cut on his reported £350,00-a-week wages for this to happen.

United are open to loan deals but only if the receiving club takes on a significant portion of the wage burden - after all, United must make financial room for much-needed January reinforcements where now there is none.

Of course, Rashford could stay at United. He could reiterate his commitment to the club and follow Amorim’s view of his “next challenge" referring to a new era under the Portuguese boss at Old Trafford.

That seems unhelpful for both club and player at present. Rashford has indicated that he wishes to continue his career at a competitive club and not sink into the background. He is at risk of doing that if he stays at Old Trafford.

United need him to leave to become competitive once again and Rashford needs to leave to rescue his career. In order for that to happen, he might need to bite the wage bullet.