And so it begins. Before a ball has been kicked on the training ground, Marcus Rashford is back on the front pages.
And for what? What salacious scandal has the footballing target of the tabloids’ ire become embroiled in now? Well, having the nerve to be on holiday days before he was due back to work at Manchester United.
Photographs of Rashford full of joie de vivre on the French Riviera being deemed that newsworthy provided his family with a reminder of what is to come if a move to another top European side does not materialise in the coming weeks.
A year of blissful Catalonian anonymity is no more. Behind closed doors, the overriding feeling at Old Trafford was that Rashford was finished, as a United player and perhaps an elite-level forward, as he headed out on various loans over the past few years. Football has a funny way of bringing people back together and providing the most unlikely of second chances.
United supporters are torn, but if Rashford builds on a career-saving season at Barcelona to fire the club back up the table again – which he is more than capable of doing – then we have the most heartwarming tale on our hands.
