Marcus Rashford got his mega £315k-a-week deal last summer ‘relentlessly determined to win more trophies’… what followed has been nightclub visits, ‘sick days’, discipline problems and a player bang out of form

At 26-years-old, Marcus Rashford can’t get away with ‘being a kid who knows no better’. 

On a £315,000-a-week contract, he can’t get away with finding himself out at a nightclub in a different country hours before being due in for training – and then missing out through ‘illness’. 

While it may be, as Nicky Butt termed it, a ‘s***hole’ of a dressing room compared to years gone by, it is not unreasonable for Manchester United to look to Rashford and expect him to be a leader, an example for others to follow. 

‘When you are not living the right life, you get killed,’ Erik ten Hag said last summer during the club’s US tour. 

‘What is important? Sleep, recovery, nutrition. Three key areas and when you don’t do this right, you have a problem. You can’t perform.’

Erik ten Hag (right) now has a decision to make as to how he will handle his latest disciplinary

Rashford was reportedly seen entering Belfast night club Thompsons Garage earlier this week

This wasn’t about Rashford in particular, but it fits now more than ever – even though he has since ‘taken responsibility’ for his actions, as revealed by Manchester United in a short statement on Monday night.

It should be stressed that nobody is telling Rashford he must become a hermit who never socialises and does nothing other than eat, sleep, train, repeat. But negative body language and disciplinary issues cannot be allowed to slide either, not as one of the best earners at one of the biggest football clubs in the world.  

‘You will not reach the levels when you don’t do the things right,’ Ten Hag added during that San Diego media briefing. 

Jadon Sancho found that out after being exiled and then shipped out on loan. Now it’s up to Rashford to heed the warning. Better late than never. 

There was a sigh of relief around Carrington and Old Trafford back in July when, after a year of negotiations, Rashford finally inked a new five-year contract.

With a hefty salary bump, which will see him earn £78million if he stays at Old Trafford for the duration of the new deal through until 2028, Rashford talked up his lofty ambitions on the back of a season where he finished with 30 goals. 

His brother’s meeting with Paris Saint-Germain had sounded the alarm but inked and dried, Rashford was supposed to be the centrepiece of a successful rebuild under Ten Hag.  

Rashford put pen to paper on a new five-year deal to stay at Manchester United back in July

That deal brought elevated expectations but he has struggled to meet them so far this season

‘I joined Manchester United as a seven-year-old boy with a dream,’ Rashford said in July. 

‘That same passion, pride, and determination to succeed still drives me every time I have the honour of wearing the shirt.

‘I’ve already had some amazing experiences at this incredible club, but there is still a lot more to achieve and I remain relentlessly determined to win more trophies in the years ahead.

‘As a United fan all my life, I know the responsibility that comes with representing this badge and feel the highs and lows as much as anyone. I can assure you that I will give everything to help the team reach the level we are capable of, and I can feel the same determination around the dressing room.’

For fans, words are cheap. And when the team loses, everything is magnified. Every social outing; every social media post; body language; smiling; not smiling; stopping for autographs; not stopping for autographs; you get the picture. Criticism can be relentless.

And that’s where Rashford finds himself now, six months on from signing that new deal.

Just four goals and six assists to his name heading into February, body language that is tuning people out and the public fall-out of a nightclub trip in Northern Ireland which saw him miss training and the FA Cup trip to Newport County.

‘It’s an internal matter,’ Ten Hag said after the 4-2 win at Newport, irked by repeated questions about his £315,000-a-week forward. 

But nothing is ever internal when it comes to the discipline of a Manchester United player.  

Rashford’s body language has been a big talking point with former players unimpressed

Ten Hag has said he will ‘deal with’ the latest off-the-field crisis at Manchester United

Alan Shearer has warned Rashford not to waste his talent amid reports the forward was spotted at a nightclub in Belfast on Thursday evening

‘There’s a huge talent in there with Marcus Rashford. We’ve seen him be disciplined last season when he was late to a meeting before a game but something is clearly wrong – either at home or in his relationship with the football club,’ Alan Shearer said on the BBC.

‘He can’t keep doing this, he can’t keep wasting his talent because it’s not right. 

‘He needs strong management, someone to get hold of him and tell him there’ll be huge regrets come the end of his career if he continues doing this.

‘You can’t keep doing it, it needs sorting now. Thirty goals last season, four this season. When I see him play, it looks like he’s got the world on his shoulders so it needs sorting now because he can’t really deal with it.’

Those were strong words but Shearer isn’t alone.  

‘I watched him at Wigan [in the third round], I thought his body language was shocking. It really, really was,’ Ally McCoist told talkSPORT.

‘He needs a fresh challenge and Manchester United need to move on I think looking at it now.’

Go back to December 2022, prior to his mega new deal, and even then a former pro who has his best interests at heart, Paul Scholes, sent his own word of warning.

Left out of the starting line-up against Wolves for poor time-keeping – he was late to a team meeting – Scholes fired the striker a warning. 

Some supporters are questioning whether Rashford needs a fresh start to rediscover his form

‘He’s jeopardising his own form a little bit by being stupid or whatever he’s done is wrong and the manager has seen it to take him out of the team,’ Scholes told BT Sport.

‘But when he is on form, he’s looked so happy and if you look over the last 18 months, he’s looked miserable and hasn’t performed, could this jeopardise him going forward?

‘He looks a bit miserable there [warming up] because he’s not playing but I hope it doesn’t jeopardise the next six months of the season.’

And the biggest frustration for supporters is that, in many of their minds, he hasn’t heeded these warnings.

Rashford now has a new publicist in his corner who has worked with Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho, Mason Mount, and others in the past. 

But eliminating all criticism as a player for Manchester United is like asking a chimney sweep to come back out without a speck of dirt on them. It’s unrealistic – and it’s not happening.

So, Rashford needs to help himself, or at least try to. 

Being seen celebrating his birthday in the Chinawhite nightclub after a derby defeat by Man City looks bad optically, as does a two-day trip to Northern Ireland to see close friend and former Man United youngster Ro-Shaun Williams.

He served up a muted celebration in response to his critics after scoring against Tottenham

Going to a nightclub is fine. Going to a nightclub and then not reporting to training, is not. That’s the distinction being made by supporters. 

Staunch defenders of Rashford will point to the fact that a pattern has emerged of Ten Hag having issues with forward players. 

Sancho ended up in exile and Cristiano Ronaldo went nuclear in a TV interview – those are two examples.  

But what happens from here is as much down to Rashford as it is for Ten Hag. Rashford is a boyhood United fan that all United fans are desperate to see succeed. Yet, only he can turn the tide.

The real question is: has he still got that ‘relentless desire’ in him to win trophies at Old Trafford? Now, more than ever, it’s time to show it.