Marcus Rashford presents Erik ten Hag with key Sir Alex Ferguson test
Marcus Rashford's golden boy status did not save him when he was late for a Manchester United team meeting last season.
United boss Erik ten Hag dropped Rashford to the bench for United's Premier League trip to Wolves for being a few minutes late, despite the forward being the team's top scorer at the time. Ten Hag's hard line with Rashford came just weeks after the United boss had jettisoned Cristiano Ronaldo for undermining his authority, a fate that would also befall Jadon Sancho.
Now Ten Hag, who has made discipline and high standards the cornerstone of his United rebuild, is facing another test of his authority, after Rashford's latest display of ill-discipline. Ten Hag revealed Rashford missed training on Friday after calling in sick. Unfortunately for Rashford, footage emerged on social media of him entering a Belfast nightclub late on Thursday.
By the time Ten Hag faced the media on Sunday, for United's FA Cup tie at Newport, the fuller picture had emerged, the Dutchman declaring it an “internal matter” that he would “deal with”.
As well as a fresh test of Ten Hag's authority, the Rashford situation is also the first real issue facing the new INEOS regime in charge of football operations, led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford. While officially not yet in control, until Ratcliffe's 25 per cent stake in United is ratified by the Premier League, the INEOS influence is already being felt at the club and they will be kept in the loop about how Ten Hag deals with Rashford.
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This is not the first time this season Rashford has fallen foul of Ten Hag, with the England striker's conduct branded “unacceptable” by his boss after he chose to party at Manchester nightspot Chinawhite just hours after United's comprehensive 3-0 derby defeat at home to local rivals City.
Such a decision was ill-advised, but Rashford would appear not to have learned from it, given his decision to go out in Belfast on successive nights, before calling in sick and failing to turn up for training on Friday. Rashford may well have been ill, but the footage that showed him entering the nightclub on Thursday, just hours before he was due in training the following morning, leaves the 26-year-old open to accusations of unprofessionalism, whatever the truth for his absence.
Newport fans savagely poked fun at Rashford (BBC)When Ten Hag arrived at United in the summer of 2022, he said he encountered a “no good culture”, one in which there was no discipline or accountability within the playing squad. The 53-year-old Dutchman has worked hard to restore standards at United, which is why Rashford's latest indiscretion cannot be allowed to go unpunished.
Last season, Rashford plundered a career-best 30 goals, which earned him a lucrative new £350,000-a-week, five-year deal last summer, making him the club's top earner. This season he has found the net just four times in 26 appearances for United, underlining his alarming drop in form and focus.
There is concern Rashford is at risk of failing to fulfil his enormous potential, with Newcastle and England forward Alan Shearer saying: "There is a huge talent there with Rashford.
“We saw him be disciplined last season when he was late for a meeting and he actually missed a game, but something is clearly wrong, either at home or with his relationship with the football club, because he can't keep doing this.
"He can't waste his talent, it's not right and he needs stro.ng management and someone to get hold of him and say, 'you know what, if you get to the end of your career and have huge regrets, you can't have that'."
More than that, Ten Hag cannot allow Rashford to bend the rules to suit him, and must reinforce the message that the standards he has laid down at United apply to every player, regardless of profile or status.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously said the single most important tool for any manager is control. Ten Hag's control has been challenged by Rashford and, not for the first time in his season-and-a-half in charge, the current United boss must show that you undermine him at your peril.
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