Cesc Fabregas’ Como have joined the race to complete a loan deal for wantaway Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford this January.
Rashford dropped an almighty bombshell at Old Trafford last month as he revealed that he was keen for ‘a new challenge and the next steps’ in his career.
Once the focal point of United’s attack and a poster boy for the academy, Rashford has badly struggled for form over the last 18 months, netting just 15 times since his best-ever season in front of goal in 2022/23.
Rashford’s last appearance came in the Red Devils’ Europa League victory away to Czech outfit Viktoria Plzen almost a month ago and the 27-year-old has not featured in the club’s last six games.
The England international was named amongst Ruben Amorim’s substitutes for United’s 2-0 defeat at home to Newcastle but has since been sidelined with an illness, with his future in limbo and the subject of intense speculation.
Galatasaray were quick to make their interest known after Rashford’s shock revelation and submitted an offer to take the United man on a six-month loan. However, this was rejected out of hand by the attacker.
AC Milan have since emerged as the frontrunners to wrap up a temporary agreement, with Rashford’s brother and agent, Dwaine Maynard, travelling to Italy for initial talks with the Serie A giants on Wednesday.
According to Gianluca Di Marzio, Como are the latest team to throw their hat in the ring for Rashford’s signature and ‘would have no difficulty’ stumping up the cash required to satisfy the player’s demands.
Raphael Varane left United to play under Fabregas at Como in the summer the report claims they will use the defender’s presence as ‘leverage’ in their attempts to land the two-time FA Cup winner.
Rashford’s former England team-mate Dele Alli has also been training with the Serie A outfit in recent days.
United’s hierarchy accept that they may be forced to pay a large proportion of his £350,000-a-week wage in order to force a temporary move before the January deadline.
While Rashford has been open with desire to seek potential avenues away from the Theatre of Dreams, he last week hit out at ‘false stories’ which suggested he had spoken to a sports agency to speed up his exit.
‘Been a lot of false stories written over past few weeks,’ he told his followers on Instagram.
‘But guys this is getting ridiculous – never met with any agency and don’t have any plans to.’
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of United’s 2-2, Amorim insisted Rashford could still have a future at the club, as long as he ‘wanted it really, really bad’.
‘I already spoke a lot about Marcus, it depends more on him than on me,’ the United head coach said.
‘He has to want it really, really bad. He’s here, he’s in our squad so he’s our player and he’s ready to play if I decide.
‘In that moment [against Newcastle], I was really focused on trying to turn things around, to score one goal to open the game. And I chose, for example, [Alejandro] Garnacho to do the job.
‘I was not focused on the idea that I put Marcus on or not because he was away for four games. It was not that.
‘If he’s there, he’s ready to play but I chose Garnacho.’
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