Marcus Rashford is contracted to Manchester United until 2028. His salary of £325,000 a week makes him the club’s top earner at a time when minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is trying to stay on top of salary costs, which are, by some distance, the club’s highest expenditure.

Barcelona had an option, in the loan deal they agreed for Rashford last season, to turn it into a permanent transfer for £26m.

Advertisement

As expected, that deadline passed in the middle of June without it being activated.

There was another clause in Rashford’s contract that allowed other clubs – Liverpool and Manchester City excepted – to buy him for £40m, which expired earlier in July. As expected, no one triggered that either.

Sources close to the player felt it was illogical to think a club would come in and offer more than Barcelona would have had to pay.

With England’s World Cup campaign at an end, Rashford is now entitled to a three-week break.

Unless the timings are altered, or his situation changes, he will return to Manchester United just as they begin a six-day training camp in the Republic of Ireland, scheduled around a historic meeting with old rivals Leeds at Croke Park on 12 August.

Advertisement

Suggestions around Rashford have been that he is relaxed about the prospect of returning to training at United.

For a start, there is not the same confrontational relationship between the player and his coach.

Ruben Amorim fell out with the forward within weeks of his arrival from Sporting Lisbon. Amorim eventually exiled him, which triggered a loan move to Aston Villa.

Amorim’s replacement, Michael Carrick, is a former teammate of Rashford’s. He has also been his coach and was, briefly, his manager, following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dismissal in 2021. The pair are said to get on well.

Advertisement

Carrick’s only public statement around Rashford, towards the end of last season, was conciliatory in nature, which is in keeping with his general personality.

For their part, United are sticking to their refusal to renegotiate a deal with Barcelona on reduced terms or consider a second loan to the Catalan giants.

The consistency of United’s messaging is being articulated in a summer where they are keen to prove they will not be bullied into overpaying to get deals over the line.

Read more on where Rashford’s future lies