16 Apr 2025 07:18:01
Rashford playing a blinder for villa, David O was giving him all the plaudits too. I am curious though!, If other teams show interest and offer more than the 40m? Can we accept or have to take villas 40m.
16 Apr 2025 08:39:56
I believe it is an option to buy not obligation so no we would not need to accept. Villa themselves may need European football to justify not only the valuation but the wages. which will be the problem elsewhere.
Whilst Rashford appears to be enjoying himself at Villa and is performing well I would expect that he would still prefer one of the Elite clubs if they showed an interest at which point a really good performance in the Champions League against PSG was probably the perfect sales pitch.
16 Apr 2025 08:43:50
I'm sure Villa must have first dibs at an agreed price.
16 Apr 2025 10:36:31
If we get 40m then great, if we get anymore then that's a bonus.
I look at it like this, for us he's a 20m player most of the time, occasionally he'll put in a great performance but nowhere near often enough to justify even half of his wages.
He doesn't perform like a 40m player for us, so if we get 40m for him then we are better off.
I look at all our players the same way. Does Garnacho play like a 50m player? No he doesn't. Therefore if someone offers 50m or more then we should probably take it, unless we are absolutely certain that he will become worth more than that in a year or twos time (which we can't be) .
Personally I think Rashford has found his level (a good Europa league/ average UCL side) . He's one of those players capable of a brilliant performance, but incapable of consistently performing at that level. Which removes him as an option for a top UCL side, unless he's going to be a squad player for them. In fact I'm not even sure he's suitable as a squad player for an elite side. You want your squad players to be steady Eddie's who'll always give you a minimum of a 6 or 7 out of 10 performance, but who can step it up to a 8 or 9 at times. You need to know they will give a minimal level of performance that is acceptable. Rashford has been lazy in recent seasons in terms of his teamwork and off the ball work. If you're chasing a game or you need to rotate do you want to put on a player who'll either be a 4 out of 10 or an 8 out of 10, with no guarantees which performance you'll get?
I think Villa would be a very good move for him. Emery seems to be getting him back into some kind of form. I'm not sure he's the kind of person who'll settle well abroad, and I don't see any clubs in England bigger than Villa (or at least better positioned to win major honours) who would look to sign him.
If he's smart and Villa want to take up the buy option he'll accept it.
16 Apr 2025 11:05:22
He has better stats in his last 20 games for us over the 1st 20 games for them.
French press gave him 3/ 10 for 1st leg.
Anybody buying into the narrative that he is pulling up trees for villa is mistaken.
16 Apr 2025 11:53:46
Ken, I don't mind this media narrative that he's doing great. Let it continue I say, it'll only benefit us when it comes to selling him in the summer.
16 Apr 2025 13:16:47
He was genuinely very good in the second leg. It's even more infuriating that it's clear that he can do it. More reason to try and get as much money as we can for him and less reason to want to keep him in my opinion.