For Rashford, though, it has been a season of unremitting struggle. He has scored only five goals and, despite United’s striker issues, had started just three of United’s last 12 matches.
Being left out for the derby when the club were without Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood illustrated how little faith Ralf Rangnick had in him.
The resulting tales that surfaced about Rashford considering his future at United were well-sourced but the links to Paris Saint-Germain were highly fanciful.
Why, when a club was used to Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe up front, would they possibly be interested in the current version of Rashford?
Truth be told, he has not been the Rashford of old for 15 months. Even though he was included in the Euros squad – and captained England in the warm-up game against Romania at the Riverside – he was relegated to the fringes during the tournament. He only got on the field in the final to enable him to take a penalty.
