Ruben Amorim was contemplating the notion of a humiliation. It wasn’t a question about Crystal Palace beating Manchester United – they do that most seasons, sometimes twice in a campaign now – or even about his side losing five of their last six home league games and trailing for much of the other to the bottom club.
Rather, he was asked if it would be humiliating if Marcus Rashford, the player he had banished even before his exile to the Midlands was rubberstamped, proves prolific on loan at Aston Villa. “Humiliating? It’s not embarrassing,” Amorim replied. “When you loan a player - and I don’t think it’s official - you expect him to play and to improve, so there is nothing humiliating there.”
