Fresh details regarding Marcus Rashford's loan exit at Manchester United have been revealed.
The 27-year-old is seemingly set to play no part under new head coach Ruben Amorim with a move away from Old Trafford in the works. His agent - and brother Dwaine Maynard - have spoken to clubs in Italy, Germany and Spain so far as a plan around Rashford's future continues to take multiple turns.
Manchester United are facing a similar case of deja vu after Jadon Sancho was exiled by former boss Erik ten Hag this time last year - so could INEOS hatch a masterplan of the same ilk this month?
Marcus Rashford's loan deal depends on multiple different factors - Ben Jacobs
It is a situation that ultimately serves as a reminder that football can move so quickly. Just a few years ago, Rashford was beginning to be talked about as a Ballon d'Or contender after he smashed in 30 goals in 56 games for the Red Devils.
Now his future appears so much more bleak and as explained by Ben Jacobs this week, multiple moving parts make it hard for his situation to be resolved with such haste.
"Marcus Rashford is obviously a different story," began Jacobs. "He's been frozen out for now: some of that is down to Ruben Amorim, but some of it is also down to the fact that a departure is realistic, and when you get that possibility of a asset – and we have to call Rashford that, because he's at peak age and he's got plenty of time left on his contract – Manchester United's hierarchy are well aware that a Rashford exit, temporary, or in the long run, permanent, is still very valuable to the football club on their books.
"I think the Rashford freeze-out is a mixture of Ruben Amorim’s decision coupled with the fact that the hierarchy at Manchester United want to make sure that if somebody wants him, there's no possibility that he plays a few minutes and picks up an injury. So there is that sort of ‘asset protection’ aspect to this as well.
"And at the moment, we have a likelihood, due to wage and due to Manchester United's view of a minimum £40 million fee for Rashford, that alone will be the starting point. Like they did with Jadon Sancho’s loan to Dortmund, Manchester United might be prepared to simply have a scenario where his wage is covered, and then there are certain performance-related incentives that make up the overall deal."
"With Sancho, Manchester United, when he went to Dortmund, basically had his wage covered, and a little bit more, and then when Dortmund made the Champions League final, they started to make a profit off that loan. And had Dortmund finished in the top four of the Bundesliga, they'd have made even more. But almost all of the performance-related aspects of that Sancho loan to Dortmund were met.
"So it worked quite well for all parties, and I think Manchester United might consider a similar formula that starts as a loan. We’ll wait and see whether they'll pay any of the wages. It's possible, like Raheem Sterling did to Arsenal, that Rashford might make a small wage concession if he wants to move to a particular club. And right now, it looks like Europe is the player’s preference.
In FourFourTwo's view, Jacobs is right to point out that a lot can be learnt from Sancho's scenario at Dortmund and how the loan was made to work for both parties.
Manchester United have lots of key decision makers at the club under INEOS' newly-formulated footballing department and they should be able to conjure up another kind of similar deal.
