Barcelona Take Final Stance on Marcus Rashford amid Man Utd Return Reports
Barcelona have made a final decision involving on-loan winger Marcus Rashford amid reports the club were considering send him back to Manchester United.
Unwanted by Ruben Amorim at United, Rashford signed on loan for the Blaugrana - who have the option to buy him permanently for £30.3 million.
Rashford has made three appearances in La Liga for his new club, two of which came from the bench.
His only start was against Levante and he was substituted at half-time for Dani Olmo with Barca 2-0 down, before Hansi Flick's men went on to win 3-2 in a dramatic comeback.
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With the England international not setting the world alight just yet, a now-deleted report in El Nacional claimed that Barca's top brass described Rashford as "shy, imprecise and lost" on the pitch and were deliberating ending his loan prematurely.
It was even claimed that club president Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco were never fully set on signing Rashford, having pursued Luis Diaz and Nico Williams as their left-winger targets.
Barca would still have to pay around £4 million if they sent Rashford back mid-season but journalist Guillem Balague has responded to the report.
What Barcelona told Rashford's representative
According to Balague, Barca do not intend to terminate the loan and still have optimism that Rashford can be very important for them this season.
"Absolutely rubbish that Barcelona is planning to end up early @MarcusRashford loan deal," Balague said on X.
"Barca told his representative that they have a lot of confidence in Rashford’s potential and that they believe he will recover as a top player.
"No more to say, apart from the fact I agree with Gary Lineker and his treatment by some media."
Rashford started for England in their 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Andorra at Villa Park on Sunday, playing 68 minutes on the left flank before being replaced by Anthony Gordon.
Though he is now closing in on two years without a goal for his country, England boss Thomas Tuchel is happy with how he has been performing.
He’s clearly a left winger,” Tuchel said. “He had the freedom today to drift inside. He had an excellent training week, and it was obvious we wanted him to start because he trained so, so well on the left side.”
England take on Serbia on Tuesday before Rashford heads back to Barcelona, who take on Valencia in La Liga action on 14 September
Topics: Barcelona, Marcus Rashford
Josh Lawless