Marcus Rashford told the first thing he should do to win over Man Utd teammates and fans after Barcelona snub | OneFootball

Former Manchester United star Paul Parker believes that Marcus Rashford owes Red Devils fans an “apology” and he should feel “embarrassed” at Barcelona snubbing him for a permanent transfer.

The 28-year-old hasn’t played for Man Utd for more than 18 months after falling out of favour with former head coach Ruben Amorim.

The forward then joined Aston Villa on loan for the second half of the 2024/25 season, and despite impressing in fits and starts, Unai Emery’s side opted out of signing him permanently for £40m that summer.

The England international’s luck was in when Barcelona recruited him on a season-long loan, with an option to buy for just under £30m.

Once again, however, a permanent Old Trafford exit eluded him as the Catalan outfit overlooked him and forked out £60m to sign Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon instead.

Rashford is set to link up once again with his boyhood team after his summer break. Now, ex-Three Lions ace Parker thinks the experienced attacker needs to do a couple of things to ingratiate himself with his old side.

Parker told PariuriX.com: “Rashford has a lot to prove – the fans won’t accept him after just one match. With Marcus Rashford, I feel like the club shouldn’t feel obliged to keep him, but purely because of the contract situation they can’t tell him not to come to the club anymore.

“Rashford really has to prove a point. He can’t expect to suddenly be a starter at Manchester United. He has to prove a point, which is not about scoring a goal and letting the entitlement come into it again. The fans are not going to fall into that trap of believing him again. Surely, they can’t fall into that again.

“But if he is serious about wanting to prove himself again, it will be a serious challenge for him, because the fans won’t accept him just after one game or one goal, he needs to work hard consistently. How does he conduct himself when he is sitting at the bench watching the matches?

“How is he conducting himself in the training and socially? That is one of the big issues and a big reason that he is where he is. There is a lot for him to do and to prove to be perfectly honest and this is his last chance. Absolutely his last chance.”

Rashford scored 14 goals and added as many assists in 49 appearances for Barcelona last season as they won La Liga with relative ease.

And despite seeing first-hand what he could do for the Blaugrana, instead, they chose 25-year-old Gordon, who notched 22 goal contributions for Newcastle in 2025/26.

The former Everton man was largely preferred over Rashford in England’s third-place finish at this summer’s World Cup, which may back up Barca’s transfer decision, too.

Parker thinks Rashford should be ashamed that Gordon was favoured over him and on top of that, due to the manner of his Man Utd departure, there may be some distrust of him amongst the squad.

He added, “The biggest thing is, how can he ever be trusted by his teammates again? He wasn’t doing his job properly but everyone allowed him to do it but now they have figured him out. Back in my time you would have been grabbed by one of the senior players and they would do something to you which you wouldn’t find very funny.

“He has been given this small chance to come back again and honestly he has only been given this chance because of the fact that Barcelona didn’t want him. They decided to spend more money on Anthony Gordon which Rashford should be feeling embarrassed about. The moment they spent that much money on Gordon, he should be embarrassed.

“Now, he is back at the club and he should be apologising to a few people. Not just the players, also other people – and maybe he should be apologising to the fans as well, because the fans have been stupid enough to back him for a long time. The fans who didn’t back him got absolutely slaughtered for it because he was a local boy, but he wasn’t doing his job properly.”

“The reality for Rashford now is as well that 100% effort is not enough. He needs to give it 110% to prove to people that he has changed. That’s how the world works.”