The trouble with Marcus Rashford

What a week it’s been for Marcus Rashford, who divides opinion like almost no one else in football. The Manchester United striker has been making headlines of the non-footballing kind after pictures emerged of him in a Belfast nightclub last week, a night out that apparently consisted of drinking tequila non-stop. When he returned home to Manchester, he called in sick, meaning he was unable to play in last Sunday’s FA Cup tie between Manchester United and Newport. After Rashford finally returned to first team action on Thursday evening, in Manchester United’s away game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, he was first on the scoresheet, a cooly taken goal in the opening minutes of the match. Crisis, what crisis? The questions keep on coming. What’s really up with Rashford, and what are we to make of the endless excuses made on his behalf by those who see in him something special?

Any criticism of Rashford, they argue, is really code for something else: our collective desire to rush to judgment, a snobbish disdain for working-class lads making and spending loads of money, and the media’s obsession with taking famous footballers down a peg or two. I’m not so sure. Rashford is paid a princely sum to turn up to training and play football, something that his night on the town in Belfast seemingly rendered him unfit to do. Is it really too much to expect him to approach his day job in a professional manner?

Rashford is 26 years old, no longer young in footballing terms, yet he remains as much of a sporting enigma as ever. He performs in fits and starts. He can have a good season (last year he was scoring goals for fun) before sinking into anonymity the next.

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What is open to debate is whether he can perform at the very highest levels on a consistent basis: the mark of a true footballing great. The focus on him is not unfair. The attention comes with playing for Manchester United, a world-famous club caught in a seemingly endless spiral of decline, and a huge fanbase that is asking more and more questions about the players, the manager and the ownership. 

Rashford is famous beyond football for his campaign to tackle child food poverty. This was admirable in many ways. It forced the government to change its mind in an important policy area; how many young footballers can claim to have had a similar impact? But this extracurricular activity should form no part of the judgment of his footballing prowess or lack of. Yet it does, unfortunately. Many in the game and beyond have held him up as the role model for a new kind of footballer, socially aware and committed to good causes. Perhaps the praise went to his head. 

Rashford has made headlines more recently for his sour expression on the field, a perceived lack of commitment to the cause of his boyhood team, and giving a general impression of being out of sorts. What’s he got to complain about? He is paid millions to kick a ball. He was awarded an MBE for his campaigning. Some observers hint that perhaps all is not well behind the scenes in Rashford world. No one outside his immediate circle of family and friends can really know. But all of this is to unduly complicate the immediate issue at hand. Rashford would attract much less flak if he was playing well. The stats are dismal. Yes, stats don’t always tell the full story in football but they’re hard to ignore in Rashford’s case. He has scored only five goals in 27 games this season. A paltry return by any measure. 

Rashford’s fall (temporary or permanent) from the footballing pinnacle points to wider issues in the game. Too many young players become rich beyond their wildest dreams far too early in their careers. Their wealth and fame attracts an army of hangers-on and sycophants who tell them they can do no wrong and pander to their every whim. Motivation can be hard when there are so many other distractions. Only the most committed and gifted players have the drive and hunger to keep pushing themselves to even greater heights.

Erik ten Hag, his under-pressure manager, said he had reinforced the importance of discipline off the pitch in his conversations with Rashford. Will he listen? Footballers have a short shelf life and the clock is ticking for ‘Saint Marcus’, a talented footballer who maybe isn’t quite as good as he and his admirers like to think.