Can Marcus Rashford RESCUE his career at Aston Villa? | Football Ramble

Marcus Rashford has gone on loan to Aston Villa for the rest of the season. He's finally going to be playing outside of Old Trafford. But will leaving Manchester United save Marcus Rashford's career? It's a good question. I think the answer at this point has to be maybe, which is not an answer that people watching YouTube want to hear. They want definitive answers to specific questions, so the algorithm tells us. But I think it's really difficult to say, because there's so many factors at play. And I think one of them is that, you know, Rashford to a, I would say, quite a large extent has been the architect of his own downfall at Man Utd. Well, that's come out recently, hasn't it? Based on the stuff we're hearing from the club, from different journalists, from, you know, the fact that he's had problems under certain, but more than one, more than even a couple of managers around his standards, his discipline, etc. But it also depends on, you know, whether it's a nice fit from at Villa, whether he vibes with Unai Emery, whether he can fit into the squad. So there's a few things at play. The big question for me over Marcus Rashford still, that this move doesn't go towards answering yet, is does he still want to be a top level football player? Is the way he's been reportedly behaving a symptom of the fact that he's fed up of being a top level footballer and all the pressure that comes along with that, and he wants to do something else? Or has he just come to the end of the road at Man United and therefore a fresh start will help him? And we don't know that yet. And we won't really know that for a little while. The loan move is, you know, it's till the end of the season. So he's got a good amount of games left to show everyone that. And then from the Villa point of view, it's the idea that they do need bodies. They need top level performers because their season has really been a story of the way they've played in the Premier League when they haven't had Champions League games, which has been pretty good overall. And the way they've played after they have had Champions League games, the impact on them as a team who's not used to playing in the Champions League has been very, very stark. Now Marcus Rashford's come and he's got a lot of experience playing at the very top level. He's a very, very experienced 27 year old player. I think he's got 12th or 13th top scorer in United's history or something like that. And he's clearly played in the Champions League before and he's played in tournaments for England, etc. So he's going to be someone who will come in there and if he's got the right attitude, if genuinely all he needs is a fresh start, could give himself and everyone else a lift. And then the final part of the answer I think is, you know, where does he play? If he plays on the left, which is his preferred position and something that, you know, other managers at Man United have had a kind of issue with playing in there consistently because, for example, I think under Ten Hag when Mason Greenwood left, you know, he was asked to play on the right and help out and, you know, talking and playing through the middle and stuff. If he plays on the left at Aston Villa, ahead of Jacob Ramsey, who's a good player but I would say in terms of ceilings, Rashford's ceiling is higher, then he could have a really nice time there. Aston Villa going to that stage of the Champions League now for the time they've been playing in the top level of Europe competition for a long time, it could be a really nice fit. I think it could go brilliantly but it genuinely could just be he sits on the bench, doesn't have the attitude they need, doesn't really want to do it and is happy to pick up his salary and then, you know, it's one of those ones where in a number of years' time you just don't really hear from him anymore, other than his off-pitch stuff. But what do you think? Before we talk more about Marcus Rashford, do remember to like this video and subscribe to the channel. But yes, on Marcus Rashford, I think that he needed to get out of there. I find what you were saying earlier about the kind of personal side of things and how that it's come to light that other managers struggled with Marcus Rashford. Because that is an interesting point, because if he struggled with a particular manager, that happens all the time, right? But he's had so many different types of managers, I mean, Ten Hag, very different to Solskjaer and you can start naming them all. Is it Manchester, the city, or Manchester United, the club itself? Well, this has been going on a little bit for some time now. Some people are saying, you know, I know in The Athletic they're asking, is it harder for a Mancunian to do well at Manchester United? Is it the kind of local boy pressure? We don't know, but there is a real chance here for him to show the world, I've still got it and I can do it and come the summer, does he move to Villa on a permanent? Does he go elsewhere? He certainly won't be back at Manchester United if they have anything to do with it, because Amarum has been very, very clear. In terms of the fit at Aston Villa, yes, off the left is clearly his favoured position. Villa tend to kind of play a little bit differently to his strengths. Rashford likes to be a bit more direct. We've seen Emery play in a slightly different way to that without making it sort of too heavy tactically. However, what they do need, as you said, is bodies and they need a bit of a re-energised squad because they have been struggling a bit in European competition as well as Premier League. You don't want to get to the end of the season and go, do you know what? We did all right, but we went out of the quarter-finals, say, in the Champions League and we finished sixth in the league. So yeah, we've got European football, but was that a one-off kind of thing? They want to establish themselves as a Champions League club. You want to keep that going, right? And what they've done in the January transfer window is basically say, right, we're going to get in Rashford, who's an experienced player, Marco Asensio, you know, won everything in his career, but by and large at club level. So these are proper serious players. They can come in and help us, give us a bit of a G up and finish strongly in the last half of the season. And I think that Emery, who apparently requested Rashford specifically to the board, he wants to repurpose him. He wants to rejuvenate Rashford and he's got a track record of doing that. That's a big plus. Almost the perfect manager, you could say. We will see, of course, but I think it's... It's a big plus, but it comes with a caveat. The big plus is that Emery has got an amazing track record and, you know, he's worked with really big players, but I do think that he flourishes best as a coach when he's managing perhaps an unfancied side. It doesn't mean they can't be a big club, but his best work has come, say, when he's been in Spain, where he's been managing teams that aren't Real Madrid or Barcelona and overachieving with them. And I wonder... But his best work also, you could throw Villa in there. Yeah, but I'm just to juxtapose that with, and there's other reasons for this obviously, because of the spectre of Arsene Wenger, but didn't really kind of work at Arsenal partly for that reason. So it's good. I trust Emery as a manager. I think he's a great coach, but every coach at the top level thinks that they can get a tune out of a really good player. That's why you see so many top players get so many chances. We talked about this a week or so ago, talking about the amount of chances that Ravel Morrison got as a player. He never really did anything. The only thing that he had was a reputation and an incredible amount of talent, and that got him about eight different moves. Mario Balotelli is another one. He did much more than Ravel Morrison, but it's that idea. So Rashford's never going to be short of chances for that reason. I'm not comparing him to Morrison because obviously he's also achieved a lot more. So the caveat is that, yeah, sure, every manager thinks that. Emery goes and requests Rashford, fine. He's seen Rashford in the flesh close up a lot probably and thought this guy at this very top level is amazing, which is why I talked about the ceiling earlier. But every manager at top level thinks that. The second thing I would say is just the point you made. I saw Andy Mitton's piece about is it difficult to be a local lad in Manchester. Look, it's very, very difficult to be a homegrown player at any big club. First of all, it's more so easier because, of course, you have to work really hard to get there. First of all, you get a lot of slack from the fans because they love to see a local lad. So earlier on, it might be easier. Yeah, but the scrutiny is massive. And I would say that's the same at Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, any big London club, it's the same. Jeremy Carrick has talked about this. He's talked about they don't put necessary murals up for players that are homegrown at Liverpool as readily as they would for a Mo Salah. Because in a way, there's a feeling that if you're from Liverpool, of course you play for Liverpool. And you should be grateful to play for Liverpool because they're a massive club. So I think that comes as part of it. I understand that the pressure can be really, really big for a player like Rashford. But there's so many unknowns about why he's reportedly behaving the way he's reported. People are reporting that he's been out late the night before really important games. And he's been out late the night before a training session, the last training session before the manager picks aside for a big game. And he's looked tired in training before a Manchester derby and stuff like that. I mean, Amirim's comments have been brutal. Yeah, they have. I would rather play a 63-year-old than him. And obviously not being literal. If he was being literal, that would be brilliant. Yeah, but he said it. But he said it. And he's been very clear on Rashford. And that's another dimension that makes it interesting, the whole situation. Because the United have been in a really, really tough period. Yeah. And they've gone through managers, perhaps not as quickly as some would think, you know, ten homes there for a little while. But what they were faced with as a hierarchy is they're faced with really an Amirim versus Rashford situation of Amirim's making. Right, now I know Rashford had the problems and he's causing the issues apparently. And he's caused issues for earlier managers. But the hierarchy have clearly taken the decision to sanction a move for Rashford away from the club. So they've backed Amirim. So that should be positive for Man United fans because no player, whoever they are, whether it's a Cantona or a Beckham or a, you know, whoever, or a Roy Keane, as we've seen in the past, is ever bigger than a club of that size. It's just never the case. So Rashford's homegrown. It would have been great for him to spend his whole career at United and win loads of stuff and be brilliant. He's 27 now. He needed a move. They've moved him on. I know it's only on loan, but it should be seen as a precursor for them to not wash their hands, because that sounds harsh, but to move beyond him. And then as for whether Rashford's going to be successful or not, it's up to him. But I think what bodes well for Aston Villa is the fact that interview Rashford did with, was it Henry Winter, where he was basically saying, I'm ready for a move. I want to move. He's not being kicked out of Manchester United in some senses. He also said there'd be no hard feelings. You'd never hear me slacking off my United. So it's his decision to leave as well. I think if he was, if he was just not playing, he wasn't in the team and he was kind of making noises, I want to get back into the team. Like, no, you're not, you're off. He goes there with, you know, with his tail between his legs, was actually, he knows he's got a point to prove. And he said that and he was like, I'm up for leaving. But that's, so I think that potentially bodes well for Aston Villa. It's a really good point, but it's also talk. And what I said on the main ramble earlier today is that it's interesting for us neutrals, for us football fans, because now for Rashford, there's nowhere to hide. He says what he says. He says these things to Henry Winter. He behaves the way he behaves. And in some ways it's kind of quite easy for him to be like, well, the manager won't pick me. So what do you want me to do? I'll sit on the bench or I don't get in the matchday squad. There's nothing I can do. Now you can't hide behind that. He's a, he's the possibly, even though they're a massive club and they've got a lot of good players, he is possibly now the name Aston Villa, right? I mean, more people probably know who he is than even Ollie Watkins is. So he's, he's the one who's now got, he stepped out of that shadow and he's now got a performer he doesn't, and whether he can still do it, we're about to find out.