It is difficult to view Marcus Rashford scoring two excellent and decisive Champions League goals in a narrow win for Barcelona against Newcastle as anything other than yet another reason to laugh and shake one\u2019s head at Manchester United.<\/p>\n
Mediawatch hasn\u2019t actually tried to see it from a different angle, so important and fun it is to marvel at how players immediately become good again once they leave Old Trafford<\/a>.<\/p>\n But it is inevitable that some would push that agenda too far, with this the top story from the MailOnline on Friday morning:<\/p>\n \u2018The start of Marcus Rashford\u2019s redemption? Barcelona star reveals why he is \u2018better\u2019 in subtle Man United dig as he is challenged to take the next step after stunning double in Newcastle win\u2019<\/p>\n A passing knowledge of Rashford and how he has generally publicly discussed Manchester United with respect and reverence despite that not always being reciprocated<\/a> is all that\u2019s required to know this \u2018subtle Man United dig\u2019 is almost definitely complete bumwater. But we are obliged to check out of interest to see just how daft it is.<\/p>\n \u2018Rashford of course was delighted with his haul, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s going good [in Spain], I am learning a lot as it is a new way of football, but I am enjoying it all and I think it is making me a better player.\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n The lads Amorim and Ratcliffe should know by now where to apply the ointment for that sick burn. It\u2019s a dig so subtle you would be forgiven for not realising it existed.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Post box<\/p>\n These are, by the way, ludicrous ways of describing that glorious second Rashford<\/a> goal:<\/p>\n \u2018The United loanee, bombed out and insulted by the hapless\u00a0Ruben Amorim\u00a0last season, then hammered home a second with a deflected shot which cannoned in off the underside of the bar\u2019 \u2013 Dave Kidd, The Sun.<\/p>\n \u2018Dodging a challenge from a Newcastle defender, he unleashed a 25-yard strike that spectacularly found its way into the far corner off the post\u2019 \u2013 Patrick Austen-Hardy, Daily Mirror website.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s all about Hughes<\/p>\n It is interesting to see Ian Herbert write in the Daily Mail about how Rashford bore \u2018the look of a man who felt he owned the place and this stage,\u2019 that \u2018he has found something in Catalonia and the intensive Spanish lessons he is undertaking several times a week are more than mere diplomacy\u2019.<\/p>\n And there we all were thinking he had built a Duolingo streak just to keep up appearances.<\/p>\n \u2018While\u00a0Ruben Amorim\u00a0treated him with thinly veiled contempt, Flick has given him professional respect,\u2019 the deputy chief sports writer adds.<\/p>\n Herbert goes on to say that while at times \u2018it was hard to locate much evidence\u2019 of Rashford \u2018rediscovering the talent and belief he had put down somewhere and struggled to pick up,\u2019 he ultimately provided, well, this:<\/p>\n \u2018Evidence, before our very eyes, that the players we write off so soon are perhaps not the lost souls we believe them to be.\u2019<\/p>\n And that is interesting precisely because\u00a0Herbert himself also wrote in January about how Rashford needed to be \u2018talked out of his current sense of victimhood\u2019 and was \u2018apparently incapable of saving himself\u2019.<\/p>\n Which seems a little stronger than simply writing someone off or calling them a \u2018lost soul\u2019.<\/p>\n It was obviously framed through the experience of Mark Hughes and how he \u2018actually viewed wearing the No 10 jersey at\u00a0Manchester United\u00a0as a privilege and something to cherish,\u2019 before taking the brave and bold decision to join Barcelona.<\/p>\n And how Rashford, who has \u2018a far higher opinion of himself\u2019, \u2018had rather imagined that he, too, would be heading to Barcelona\u2019 but \u2018as anyone could have predicted, Barca aren\u2019t remotely interested in him, and neither is any other big club\u2019.<\/p>\n Oh, Ian. At least in the intervening eight months he has belatedly learned that the players we write off so soon \u2013 or refer to as \u2018victims\u2019 with high opinions of themselves who are \u2018apparently incapable\u2019 of turning things around \u2013 are perhaps not the lost souls we believe them to be.<\/p>\n Although he did call Rashford a \u2018boy, masquerading as a 27-year-old\u2019 who \u2018even makes Grealish seem like the soul of sobriety\u2019 and is \u2018viewed by some managers as too much of a risk, too toxic\u2019 in July. So that lesson must have been recent. Thursday evening, maybe?<\/p>\n This line from that January article is also pretty good:<\/p>\n \u2018Goodness knows how Rashford \u2013 who says he feels \u2018misunderstood\u2019 and \u2018disheartened\u2019, despite years of coddling by United \u2013 would have dealt with what came Hughes\u2019 way in Spain.\u2019<\/p>\n Fairly well so far. Three more goals this season and he\u2019ll match what Hughes scored across 37 appearances in Spain. Not bad to say \u2018Barca aren\u2019t remotely interested\u2019.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Man Utd loanee Rashford hails \u2018refreshing\u2019 Barcelona move as Romano makes \u2018complete BS\u2019 claim<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Celebrate good times, come on<\/p>\n The biggest bowl of piping hot nonsense is served up dutifully by\u00a0Patrick Austen-Hardy of the Reach website stable, who predictably lap it up.<\/p>\n For the Daily Mirror website, Rashford\u2019s goal celebration obviously \u2018speaks volumes\u2019 despite him using said goal celebration since late 2022.<\/p>\n The Manchester Evening News goes a step further, saying he unequivocally \u2018sent a pointed message to\u00a0Ruben Amorim\u2019.<\/p>\n Sticking his finger to his temple is, in all fairness, entirely specifically a \u2018pointed message\u2019. But to Amorim? When Rashford has been doing that for almost three years now?<\/p>\n \u2018Considering the manner of his celebration, it may have even been a message to Amorim\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n