What Marcus Rashford had at United was a certain sense of purity and communal proximity pretty much gone from the professional game.
A throwback to the old days when local youngsters joined their local clubs and eventually grew into local heroes, scoring goals and helping poor kids on days off.
Not much value should be placed on nostalgia or nostalmania - such notions are often filled with forgery ans false memory - but in Rashford’s case, it was warm and pleasant, as nostalgia ought to be.
That dream was brutally destroyed, by the harsh realities of today’s football and today’s United: poor results, toxic fandom & the rage-baiting media complex.
They didn’t destroy the idea of Rashford despite his sense of purity; they destroyed it because of his sense of purity.
He was the perfect target for their cynical hot takes, engagement traps and reach boosters. Opposites naturally attract; nothing like dragging a decent man through vile mud.
And, yes, it was also destroyed by years of mishandling, misprofiling and miscoaching, robbing him of the opportunity to become the kind of a player he could have been.
Is he a perfect player? No. Is he a perfect player for Amorim’s game model? Doesn’t seem to be. In a pure footballing sense, the decision to sell works for both sides.
But on a broader cultural level, this represents a devastating defeat for Manchester United. And it’s a brutal verdict on how the club was ran for 10 years.
Clubs sell players. Club sell their academy players. Clubs even sell their best academy players. But not United. And not Rashford. With Rashford and United, it really wasn’t supposed to end this way.
the year is 2095. andres iniesta receives the ball in midfield, drops his shoulder, turns and plays an inch-perfect through ball.
there is no one there. all human life has ceased to exist. it is just iniesta and the ball.