Teddy Sheringham has launched an outspoken attack on Marcus Rashford, claiming the Manchester United outcast doesn’t deserve a move to Barcelona.
The Catalan giants are favourites to sign Rashford on loan this season after holding talks with his representative and older brother Dwaine Maynard.
The 27-year-old England star is one of five United players being forced to train away from the rest of the first-team squad at Carrington in pre-season, and has lost his No.10 shirt to new £62.5million signing Matheus Cunha.
But Sheringham, a former United No 10 who won the Treble under Sir Alex Ferguson, has controversially claimed that Rashford doesn’t deserve to join Barca over the ‘soul destroying’ way he has fallen out with his boyhood club and head coach Ruben Amorim.
Rashford said in December that he was ‘ready for a new challenge’ before joining Aston Villa for the rest of the season, although sources close to the player’s camp insist he hasn’t asked to leave United.
Sheringham said: ‘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. You don’t throw it away and say you want to leave.
‘From my perspective, if you go from Manchester United to Barcelona, that’s a step up he hasn’t deserved.
‘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.’
Speaking to Sky Bet, Sheringham added: ‘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.’
Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Tyrell Malacia are the four other members of United’s ‘bomb squad’ who have been told to come in for training at Carrington once Amorim and the rest of the squad have left.
Garnacho wants to stay in the Premier League and is attracting interest from Aston Villa, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Sancho has been linked with a loan move to Juventus and Antony could return to Real Betis, while Malacia is available after a spell at PSV Eindhoven last season.
