If you dared to raise an eyebrow over Marcus Rashford’s trip to New York during the international window, you were widely scorned.
As Gareth Southgate rightly said, once Rashford was declared unfit for England duty, he could do what he wanted with his spare time. Very, very true. But it was still just a little bit odd, wasn’t it?
If you have an injury, rehabilitation does not normally include transatlantic flights, no matter what part of the plane you fly in. And what exactly is or was Rashford’s injury? It seems a little unclear. A knock, apparently. Whether or not he will be fit for duty for Manchester United at St James’ Park will be interesting.
Does anyone remember the days when you were rendered ineligible for your next club game if you cried off international duty? They are long gone. Anyhow, Rashford’s absence from the England team turned out to be an irrelevance, wins against Italy in Naples and Ukraine at Wembley seeing to that.
And it says something for the strength of this England squad that it can function superbly without a player who is, arguably, as good as any attacker in the game right now.
There is no other player who is as crucial to his club team’s fortunes as Rashford is to Manchester United’s. And that is why they will have to pay big money when a new contract is discussed.
Rashford got a touch riled when it was reported he would be looking for £500,000 a week but why on earth wouldn’t he ask for that? We tend to believe what French publication L’Equipe says and their annual list of Premier League salaries has David de Gea earning £402,250 a week and Jadon Sancho collecting £373,750 a week.
Using that sort of salary scale, £500,000 a week would seem a reasonable demand from Rashford. “Nonsense,” said Rashford. Really? His agent would not be doing his or her job if they were asking for any less.
In terms of the obscenity of players’ wages, the horse bolted a long, long time ago. De Gea, for example, is a good goalkeeper but he is, er, a goalkeeper, makes the odd great save, the odd error. Four hundred grand a week? It’s ludicrous.
That, however, is the way it is. But whatever demands Rashford ends up making, he should bear one thing in mind. Marcus Rashford and Manchester United are the perfect fit. He gets the club, the club gets him.
Sometimes, you see players who simply belong to a club, who are supremely talented but would probably not be quite the same in another environment. Rashford is one of those footballers - an iconic Manchester United player in the making. And now, he has a club manager who appears to know how to get the best of him.
So, even if Manchester United are reluctant to come up with the £500,000 a week he is, apparently, not demanding, Rashford should sign on the dotted line. Because there is no price you can put on becoming an all-time United great.
