Marcus Rashford reportedly favours a move to Barcelona as Aston Villa face a crucial decision over his future this summer.
The 27-year-old was signed on loan from Manchester United in January for the rest of the season, and he has since gone on to contribute four goals and six assists in 17 appearances across all competitions.
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There was a blow this past week though as it remains to be seen if the England international is able to feature again in this campaign after suffering a hamstring injury prior to our FA Cup semi-final clash with Crystal Palace, and so he may well have already played his last game for us.
According to The Mirror, that could be the case beyond this season too as they report Rashford is eager to join Barcelona ahead of next season, and is willing to take a pay cut to help the move go through as his time at Old Trafford looks to be coming to an end one way or another.
That is arguably contingent on a number of factors though, namely if Barcelona even wish to sign him this summer, while Villa have an option to buy included in the agreement with Man Utd, and so we could choose to sign him on a permanent basis for £40m, as per the report above.
Naturally, if he doesn’t want to stay with us long-term, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to trigger that option, unless it was from a financial perspective if we’re in a position to make a profit on him.
Either way, there will be important discussions and a decision to be made by the Villa hierarchy in conjunction with Unai Emery, as while the Basque coach has managed to inspire improved form from Rashford during his time with us, there is still a question mark over whether or not he has done enough to earn a permanent switch and for us to splash out a significant transfer fee and cover his hefty wages over a longer period.
Our ability to qualify for the Champions League again next season will also likely have a major influence on the situation, with Emery, Monchi and the Villa management team set for another busy summer as we try to preserve our position on the right side of PSR, while also trying to simultaneously improve and strengthen the squad to become more competitive on the pitch.
