"If he’s not a Manchester United player, he’s not really good for anyone else" - Paul Parker comments on star player's uncertain future at the club

Manchester United star Marcus Rashford has been linked with a potential move away from Old Trafford in recent times as he seemingly struggles to find consistent game time. However, Paul Parker believes that the 24-year-old will likely not find any takers.

Rashford has visibly struggled this season, scoring just 5 goals in 26 matches across competitions for the Premier League giants, resulting in reduced playing time. That in turn has forced Gareth Southgate to leave him out of the England squad for their upcoming international friendlies.

With playing time seemingly hard to come by at Manchester United, several recent reports have linked Rashford with a potential move to other European clubs.

Former Red Devil Paul Parker, for one, believes that the Englishman might not get a move to a big club, and that he should focus on rebuilding his form sans any distractions.

Speaking about Rashford's poor form, Parker said:

“I look at the end of the day, he’s having a poor, poor time. He might just need to go and think about exactly what he wants. Put everything else outside of his job, put that away and concentrate on what his job is. Because without his job, he wouldn’t have had those distractions.

“So, as far as I’m concerned, whatever he’s been doing and he’s putting his name to, he has to put that to bed. You can’t do both. Not at the level of football he’s playing and the fact that he plays for Manchester United. It’s too much around it, he’s in the public eye, everybody is looking at him. I just think it’s too much, too early and he hasn’t coped with it.”

Parker then addressed Rashford's exclusion from the England squad and said:

“If you look at his football, he should have been like an England regular now, the way he started.”

“And now he can’t get in the squad and rightly so because he hasn’t been playing well enough to be playing in the England squad. I think Gareth Southgate would have made a run for his own back if he brought him in.”

“There are still other players you’d say are questionable, but he couldn’t have brought him (Rashford) in because everyone would have looked at him and said – ‘well hold on a minute, what’s going on here? With England and picking players, what’s going on?’ His current form is important.”

Parker finished by saying that Manchester United would have to settle for a low selling price should they decide to sell the struggling forward. However, the footballer-turned-pundit is of the opinion that no big club will be interested. He said:

“Marcus Rashford, if he is going to be sold, he’ll have to be sold cheap. You can’t put a price tag on him at this moment in time because he just hasn’t been anywhere near. People will say, well we’ll take him on, we don’t know what we’re getting so why pay a lot of money.”

“What’s gonna happen, if he gets to the end of the season and the new manager comes in, he’s gonna have to talk to him about what he really wants to do.”

“At the end of the day, if he’s not a Manchester United player, he’s not really good for anyone else. They’re not interested in him, PR wise, to be perfectly honest.”

“Manchester United and England sells Marcus Rashford. Marcus Rashford without England and Manchester United is a nobody to the people out there who want to sell/market him.”

Paul Parker addresses Manchester United star Marcus Rashford's links to Liverpool, Barcelona and Newcastle United

While his future remains uncertain, several recent reports have linked him with a move to a number of different clubs around Europe, including the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona and Newcastle United.

However, Paul Parker believes the reports don't hold water as Liverpool and Barcelona are unlikely to be interested, while the Newcastle links only exist because of the club's new wealth owners. Parker said:

“I really don’t buy the Liverpool one. I don’t think anyone with any inkling of common sense is gonna believe Liverpool (rumours).”

“When you look at the players and look at the ones they’ve gone and brought in recent seasons, just take two of them (Diogo) Jota and (Luis) Diaz. Both of them joined Liverpool and hit the ground running. I don’t think Liverpool, PR wise, are going to take a player who’s playing very very poorly for Manchester United and then introduce him to their squad. I’m writing that one off.”

“FC Barcelona is an easy one to throw up but Barcelona very rarely takes English players.”

“Newcastle again, are very easy to throw up, because allegedly they’ve got a lot of money.”

“I think it’s an agent who is throwing that around and he can’t be the best if he’s throwing him around because people are gonna maybe say what I’m saying.”