Of all the players on Manchester United's summer hit-list, Marcus Rashford would not have been on it. The emergence on Monday Rashford is considering his future is about as unsurprising as his supportive embrace of the Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko as they warmed up on Sunday.
In a squad devoid of Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood, Rashford started on the bench at City. Anthony Elanga, a 19-year-old whose first significant start of his career was less than two months ago, started ahead of him.
Rashford, a Wythenshawe-born United fan who came through the academy, settled the Etihad derby in 2016 and scored there again in 2019. As in most industries, you are judged on what you are doing rather than what you have done. Rashford's omission was bound to sting more than his bench berth against Watford eight days earlier.
