Paul Pogba has wished his former Manchester United teammate Marcus Rashford all the best as the England international closes in on a move to Barcelona—although that isn’t a stance universally taken by Old Trafford alumni.
Pogba has played more games alongside Rashford than any other teammate in his senior career, sharing the pitch 187 times during the pair’s six years together in the club’s first team. The divisive French midfielder endured his own struggles under the weight of expectation at United before leaving for Juventus in 2022. After watching Rashford labour under the pressure which is ladled onto the shoulders of any academy graduate, Pogba couldn’t blame him for pushing to leave on loan.
“That’s crazy, but I’m happy for him because they [United] took his number,” the World Cup winner told streamer iShowSpeed, referring to the fact that Matheus Cunha was unveiled as the club’s new No. 10 before Rashford’s exit had been sealed. “Manchester United are losing a great player. Unlucky for them.
“It’s great for Barcelona to be honest,” Pogba continued. “I’m not even talking about United, because they’ve bought a few new players and the new manager wants to do his thing I guess. It’s not really his [manager Ruben Amorim’s] fault. If he doesn’t believe in someone. He needs to win. If he doesn’t win they’re going to sack him.”
Teddy Sheringham took a very different approach. Unlike Pogba and Rashford, the treble winner did not come through Manchester United’s youth system, instead joining the established English giants in their pomp in the late 1990s. The retired England international took an uncharacteristically angry tone when discussing the prospect of Rashford’s Barcelona move earlier this week, insisting his compatriot “hasn’t deserved” it.
“If you assess where Marcus Rashford is at as a professional footballer, you strive as a youngster to get to the very top and play for clubs like Manchester United, and when you’re there, you appreciate it,” Sheringham fumed to Sky.
“You don’t throw it away and say you want to leave, I find the whole episode very soul-destroying, compared to the way I was back in the day and how I strove to get the privilege to play for such a huge football club.
“To hear someone talking the way he is talking, saying he wants out—I didn’t like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doing that at Arsenal, I thought it was soul-destroying, and I hope Rashford doesn’t get the move that he’s hankering for. From my perspective, if you go from Manchester United to Barcelona, that's a step up that he hasn’t deserved.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Unlucky for Them’—Paul Pogba Gives Verdict on Marcus Rashford’s Barcelona Move.
