Why Rashford to PSG is a great deal for everyone

Stuart Telford

• 12 Aug 2022 09:05 BST
• 5 min read

PSG have entered into negotiations with Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford. A transfer could be good news for both clubs and the player himself.

What's in it for PSG?

Clearly Paris Saint-Germain stand to gain from signing the player. Although they have acquired Vitinha, Renato Sanches and Nordi Mukiele this summer for a combined €71 million, another headline-grabbing arrival for a club Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe call home wouldn't hurt from a branding perspective.

PSG labour with the fact that they play in Ligue 1, which is four places and 46.56 points below the Premier League in the latest UEFA coefficients, and signing a player who is a poster boy of English football is a good look. Rashford's goals might have slowed down in recent seasons, but for those who don't watch him every week, he is still a Man Utd academy graduate and England international.

Also off the pitch, Rashford is a beloved figure, one whose influence prompted the UK government to extend free school meals into the summer holidays at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Marcus Rashford MBE has 5.6m followers on Twitter and another 12.7m on Instagram.

Rashford will also help the team directly. This is a player who as recently as the 2019/20 season plundered 22 goals and 12 assists at rate of one every 102 minutes he played, and he is still only 24.

PSG are known to be looking at shipping Neymar, meanwhile. The Brazilian is a disruptive influence on the dressing room, has only managed 20 games in a single Ligue 1 season twice in his now six campaigns since swapping Barcelona for Paris in a world record €222m in 2017, attends his sister's birthday parties at the expense of games on a yearly basis, and bullied Mbappe when he was emerging as a better than him.

Rashford plays exactly the same position as Neymar - on the left of the attack - can be put right up front if Mbappe needs a rest, and has none of the baggage the Brazilian, who is now 30, carries.

What about Man Utd?

As good a player as Rashford is, he has stopped performing to the same levels as that halcyon 2019/20 season, and with only one year left on his contract, cashing in now on a player who is ranked at €55m by Football Transfers' sophisticated in-house algorithm could prove to be shrewd business.

The fans at Old Trafford still back Rashford, rarely getting on his case for underperforming. He missed a pair of gilt-edged chances in the opening day defeat to Brighton, but online it remains Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire who catch the most heat according to a recent Ofcom/Alan Turing Institute study.

This is a tricky predicament for new Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag. The fans might get on his back if Rashford was to fester on the bench, but this is a player who also only managed five goals in 32 games in all competitions last season as United failed to qualify for the Champions League.

An extra €55m in the bank also wouldn't hurt Man Utd, who are one of the most financially leveraged clubs in world football.

Is the move good for Rashford?

Given the above, it is difficult to see how it couldn't be. Rashford is entitled to seek a new challenge having first joined Man Utd as a seven-year-old apprentice back in 2005, and if his performances have dipped, the Red Devils aren't exactly the same club either.

The last of United's record 20 Premier League titles was won under Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, two years before Rashford made his first-team debut, but United have looked progressively less likely to scale those heights every year since. A move to Paris would surely bring with it a league title, and also, this season, minutes in the Champions League let alone and outside chance to win it.

Rashford scored for United against PSG in the Champions League in October 2020, and has 12 goals in the competition all told. He deserves the chance to see if he can extend his record at European football's top table.

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This is a player who was a poster-boy of the England national team not so long ago, but the United players have now been warned by Gareth Southgate that they need to perform if they're to get back into the national team set-up.

Harry Maguire is still getting called up but Rashford was overlooked for the most recent squad for the UEFA Nations League meetings with Hungary, Germany and Italy, alongside United teammates Jadon Sancho and Luke Shaw.

A new lease of life in Paris, and Rashford could be one of the first names on the teamsheet again. Stay where he is and his ticket to the World Cup in Qatar this summer might remain unpunched.

Rashford from Man Utd to PSG suits all parties. Watch this space.