Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho have learned a lesson that could have saved their Man Utd career
Football has a tendency to come full circle, and Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho can attest to it 12 months since the beginning of the end of their Man Utd career.
It was December 15, 2024, and Man Utd were walking into the biggest game of Ruben Amorim’s tenure at that point.
An away trip to Manchester City was approached with dread by Man Utd fans because the campaign was already starting to derail.
However, the noise went from loud to fever-pitch when the Man Utd manager caused a stir when announcing his lineup, dropping both Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford.
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Marcus Rashford and Garnacho’s beginning of the end
Amorim had been at Old Trafford for barely more than a month at that point, so his decision to drop two academy graduates from a marquee game was as big a statement as it gets.
He attributed the absence of both to training performances, further causing a commotion, which left him looking like a master at work when United won that game 2-1.
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Suddenly, Amorim was the face of United’s cultural reset, and Garnacho and Rashford were the two “bad boys” who needed to be set right.
Garnacho would eventually come back into the team and play a crucial part in the rest of the season, before imploding after the Europa League final.
Rashford, on the other hand, ended his Man Utd career with that omission, never playing for Amorim again, before successive loan moves to Aston Villa and Barcelona.
Exactly 12 months on from that monumental decision, it’s interesting to note that both players find themselves in similar territory as they would have at United.
But this time, they have learned their lesson.
Garnacho and Rashford could have saved their Man Utd career
Garnacho’s move to Chelsea hasn’t gone according to plan, with the Argentine struggling for minutes, and then struggling in the minutes he gets.
Rashford, meanwhile, has done really well in Spain, but has suffered a squad status demotion of late as Hansi Flick gets his first-choice players back.
Will Man Utd ever REGRET selling Alejandro Garnacho?
Who was more to blame in this saga?
Credit: Chris Lee – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC/Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
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However, their reaction to their respective predicaments is telling, as both players have put their heads down and accepted their role in the squad instead of kicking up a fuss.
Rashford’s team play is making a fan of Flick, while Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has been given no reason to complain about Garnacho’s conduct.
Clearly, their travels at United have taught them a lesson that they can’t be bigger than a club, and more importantly, nobody is owed a regular starting place.
If only they had learned this lesson at United, because it could have saved their career here. Whether they wanted to do it is another issue, but the year since has shown they were clearly capable of doing it.
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