Man Utd and Rashford fooling nobody while keeping up appearances | OneFootball

Marcus Rashford and Manchester United are back together. But for how long?

This weekend, the England star flew into Ireland, not for a prolonged party in Belfast this time, but to reintegrate himself with the United squad at their pre-season training camp in Dublin.

United rolled out the red carpet for Rashford, with a new squad number waiting for the previously exiled winger, plastering his arrival across social media like that couple we all know trying too hard to pretend that everything is fine.

It’s not, though, is it? United wanted to wash their hands of their highest earner while Rashford would far rather be in Barcelona. And, if not there, just about anywhere else.

Neither are controversial standpoints given the extent to which the relationship between United and Rashford deteriorated. But both parties’ circumstances mean that, for now, they must put on a public show of unity.

But the residual resentment makes their reunion story very hard to believe. Is reconciliation a realistic prospect when both feel like the wronged party?

As ever, many on the outside of the United-Rashford dynamic have already picked their side, but both are entitled to feel aggrieved.

Rashford feels he was “misunderstood” by successive United managers, while the club were well within their rights to expect more, or even just the minimum, from their biggest earner.

They had to go their separate ways. And they have – twice. But with neither Villa nor Barcelona exercising their options to buy Rashford for what appears a very reasonable fee, especially in the current market, they remain trapped in a marriage of inconvenience.

There is a chance that United and Rashford can make the best of it.

Michael Carrick is neither of the managers who caused Rashford to become disillusioned with his boyhood club; his disinterest began under Erik ten Hag and his detachment was driven by Ruben Amorim.

Removing Rashford and the rest of the bomb squad was one of Amorim’s few triumphs at Old Trafford. But the first member of the exiled mob to depart last summer is now the only one left to work under a manager he played alongside.

Carrick and Rashford were team-mates for three seasons and worked together for three more when the current manager was on United’s coaching staff. If any boss has the insight to understand Rashford, it is probably Carrick.

Perhaps Carrick could counsel the club and Rashford. But the chasm where bridges were burned still appears too vast.

United would far rather shift the huge liability of Rashford salary – now said to be around £325,000 a week – to reinvest those sums in players they want rather than one they must make do with.

And there is little question that in Rashford’s mind, his United chapter was closed when he left, certainly for the second time when he fell upwards to Barcelona.

There is so little precedent for a successful reintegration when the relationship has soured to this extent.

United had a similar predicament with Jadon Sancho, though the now-departed winger never had the bond with the Red Devils that Rashford once did. Or indeed at all. United and Sancho simply drifted until they were finally shot of each other this summer.

Manchester City and Carlos Tevez managed to put their many differences aside when he returned from a four-and-a-half-month exile. The Argentina star and Roberto Mancini co-existed around each other for almost another season and a half, long enough to win a title and an FA Cup together.

But it will be at least 20 months between United appearances if Rashford ever makes another, in which time he has played for two other clubs while not being shy about his desire to stay with at least one of them.

Despite United and Rashford keeping up appearances, another parting is the most likely outcome. It has to be. Even if it is yet another loan to get the 28-year-old off the premises and a lump of his wages off the books.

To save the kind of money the Red Devils hoped, they may have to compromise. Parking Rashford at Barca, too far away to bite United too hard on the arse, suited them and the player. But many of the other clubs who can afford to take Rashford, and can match his desired level of grandeur, are clubs United would perhaps rather not deal with.

That may motivate them to make another go of it. And they could certainly use a left winger like a fit-and-flying Rashford. But the trust between the player and his boyhood club has now gone…how long before they’re checking each other’s phones again?