Marcus Rashford’s future is one of the key topics for Barça for the next transfer window. Reportedly, both team and player are happy to stick together, but Manchester United seems to demand the whole €30 million fee, and Barcelona wants to find alternative ways. Former Barça player, and Spanish cult hero, Gaizka Mendieta discussed the situation in a recent interview with Tribal Football, a site that belongs to Flashscore, Blaugranagram’s partner.
Mendieta knows Rashford’s situation well, since he himself spent a season at Barça as a loanee from Lazio, a side that bought him for around €50 millions from Valencia, where he was a nightmare for Barcelona. “It’s a tricky one because he’s obviously enjoying the Barcelona lifestyle as well as the playing. But Barça’s style of football is so different from United’s, or maybe every Premier League team”, Mendieta explains.
“I am very intrigued by what he might be thinking. I’m sure if he obviously knows the confidence is back, he’s proven to everyone, or most people, wrong that he can still play and play at that level”, and continues, “going back to a club where at some point you were not wanted, or you were not loved in the way you wanted is difficult for a player to consider, even if situations have changed. But we’ve seen it.”
“For me, as a player, it’s always the case, like, you’ve left somewhere where things were bad, and he was not the happiest player at United. And then you leave, actually, for some of those reasons.” Therefore, to go back there now, and, then, if after one game you don’t score, after two games you still don’t score, then you don’t play, or it takes some time to get into that form. Patience won’t last very long.”
Mendieta, concludes, “for Marcus Rashford, it’s important that he stays at Barca because I don’t think it’s easy to replace that type of player. But the same, when someone fits into a system, into a team, into the dressing room, I think that’s very important for the club as well as for the players.”
