sport news Marcus Rashford cannot be painted as an innocent victim when he is looking like ... trends now
It's a bitter irony that a week in which Manchester United celebrated their 250th homegrown player making his first-team debut is ending with the poster boy for the club’s academy fighting back against his critics.
For teenager Ethan Wheatley, this is a week he will never forget. And Marcus Rashford? Well, let’s just say it has been another low in the rollercoaster career of one of United’s most gifted but infuriatingly erratic stars.
As Wheatley came on as a late substitute in the win over Sheffield United in midweek, Rashford was nursing a leg injury sustained in the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry City last weekend.
The 26-year-old was booed off by a minority of his own fans at Wembley. There were even some wholly unsubstantiated suggestions on social media that he was feigning injury.
By Thursday night, Rashford decided to hit back.
Marcus Rashford fired back at his Manchester United critics in a fiery post on his social media
During Sunday's FA Cup semi-final against Coventry, Rashford left the field with an injury and was met by a chorus of boos from a minority of Manchester United fans at Wembley
In response, he thanked fans online for their support before stating that he had 'had enough'
‘I appreciate your support!’ he tweeted in response to a sympathetic message describing his treatment as ‘disgusting’ and ‘cruel’.
‘It is abuse and has been for months,’ added Rashford. ‘Enough is enough.’
Fifteen words, posted half an hour after midnight, that say much about his situation at the moment.
It isn’t the first time Rashford has had to defend himself this season. In February, he wrote a first-person piece for The Players’ Tribune.
‘I can take any criticism,’ wrote Rashford. ‘But if you start questioning my commitment to this club and my love for football and bringing my family into it, then I’d simply ask you to have a bit more humanity.’
His mother Melanie Maynard even penned a piece for The Times explaining that he had lost two people close to him over the last 18 months, his cousin Nathan and a family friend called Garf.
‘Marcus is human, so he will have ups and downs in his life like everyone else,’ she wrote.
Safe to say, none of it will cut much ice with his critics.
Rashford suggested that some of the ill-feeling was rooted in the pandemic and his crusade to fight child food poverty which earned him an MBE. The backlash against his now infamous tequila bender in Belfast came from people waiting for him to have ‘a human moment’, he claimed.
Multiple times this season, Rashford has lashed out at his doubters via lengthy statements
In the past, the Man United forward has run several campaigns to end childhood poverty
Sadly, there will always be a moronic element hiding under a rock; the kind of people who racially abused Rashford and his England teammates Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho after they missed penalties in the shootout to decide the final of Euro 2020.
Rashford is a young man who has risen from a poor upbringing in Wythenshawe to earn a basic £315,000-a-week – more than £350,000 if he and the team hit their bonus targets – build a multi-million pound house with its own golf course, and own a fleet of luxury cars.
His mother and two brothers, Dwaine Maynard and Dane Rashford, who also represent him, are well provided for. Envy festers easily among the idiots.
But to paint Rashford as innocent victim here perhaps misses the point. As a world-famous footballer playing for one of the biggest clubs on the planet, he should not be exempt from criticism and, goodness knows, he has given the snipers plenty of ammunition.
The jaw-dropping new contract last summer came on the back of a 30-goal season for United. This term, he has scored just eight with six games to go, starting with Saturday's meeting with Burnley at Old Trafford which he is likely to miss.
From his preferred position on the left wing, he has contributed a further five assists. These are not stats that will send the Opta computer system into meltdown.
Three goals in a row in March against Manchester City, Everton and Liverpool suggested that he was hitting a rich vein of form. However, Rashford has fired blanks in his next five games, starting two of them on the bench. There are no guarantees he will be in the England squad for Euro 2024.
When some forwards aren’t scoring, they make up for it with an abundance of effort. Teammate Rasmus Hojlund is a good example of this.
Rashford scored a career-best 30 goals last season, but has not replicated the form this season
This season, he's scored just eight goals and registered five assists - with six games to go
There are times, though, when it feels like Rashford couldn’t do a better impersonation of someone who
