Rashford has been in the team for 8 years now. I keep hearing how he hasn't developed as a footballer since he was a teenager, is way too technically limited, strolls around the pitch, can't be arsed to work, gets put on a pedestal just because he's a local lad, and we'll never get anywhere by building the attack around him, and he'd never get into the top teams in Europe.
Only problem is, for someone so apparently easily replaceable, we've spent the best part of a decade and spunked a massive amount of money trying to find even a single attacking player that's managed to keep him out of the team for any length of time.
Can literally list them all: Mkhitaryan for 30 million, turned up for a Europa League campaign and nothing else. Lukaku, signed for monster money and contributed two meh seasons while being a miserable whingebag. Alexis on a massive contract, probably the worst signing in our history. James, harsh to even count him but clearly a Championship player. Sancho for 70-odd million, turned out to be a complete joker. Antony for 90 million, utter garbage. The last two are particularly funny because anyone who's been on this forum in 2021 and 22 will remember how many posters were convinced they'd both immediately chuck kick-and-rush merchant Rashford out of the squad - he's put in two shocking seasons in the last three and still easily managed to contribute more than both of them combined
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Then the few that weren't complete garbage had zero longevity: Martial was great for a season under Ole, and then his body decided he can't play football anymore at the age of 25. Cavani was very good for a season and completely packed it in the next. Ronaldo, again, good for a season and then stank up the joint before trying his best to undermine the entire club on the way out. Zlatan was good and then got hurt before he could even complete a season. Greenwood is a waster. Hojlund and Mount hopefully won't end up on this list but could go either way at this point, and Garnacho is a rare breath of fresh air from all the names listed so far, but again, not even 20 yet - Martial at the same age was talked about as a Ballon D'Or candidate.
I don't even have a problem with selling either Fernandes or Rashford this summer - Bruno is nearly 30 and Rashford is nearly 27, they've been as crap as anyone else in this train wreck of a season, they'll be past their best anyway by the time we're a serious team again, and they're two of the very few players in this squad that could be sold to raise significant cash. I just find this constant refrain that these two are somehow among our biggest issues, while they're surrounded by these names listed above, a bit... tiresome.
The sad fact is that we've never even come close at any point in the last decade to hitting the level (as a collective) where there's a legit discussion to be had about whether it's time to move on from some of our best players before making the leap to a top team. We've just wasted the few good ones by continually surrounding them with dross like Antony and expecting the team to push on.
