Ruben Amorim has addressed the elephant in the room with Marcus Rashford at Manchester United

The beginning of the end of Marcus Rashford's Manchester United career can be traced back to two events last year. The first was his contract renewal.

Sir Alex Ferguson said nearly 20 years ago Ruud van Nistelrooy was always destined to leave United after he agreed a new deal in 2004. Van Nistelrooy was gone in 2006.

Rashford's form has nosedived since his salary hike to £325,000 a week in July 2023. Fifteen club goals in 18 months, two very public disciplinaries and a seismic demotion for a Manchester derby.

More antagonistic than attending a birthday party on Deansgate hours after being substituted to catcalls in a derby defeat was the decision to hire Caroline McAteer as a PR adviser in December last year. Ms McAteer represents Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho.

Sancho was in exile at the time and Ronaldo's acrimonious divorce from United had been agreed only 13 months earlier. Both players publicly undermined the United manager. Both had been piqued by selection calls. There is a pattern developing.

Ronaldo refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham in October 2022 and Sancho was omitted from the matchday squad at Arsenal due to training form in September 2023. Sancho had form for that. His lack of playing time at the European Championship in 2021 was owed to his performance level in training.

Sancho posted a 111-word statement accusing Erik ten Hag of lying. Ronaldo conducted an incendiary interview with his sycophant Piers Morgan. Now Rashford has become one of a handful of high-profile United players to publicly seek a transfer.

Figures close to Rashford have purportedly suggested they cannot control Ms McAteer when they were responsible for hiring her. They were only ever going to get bad PR unless