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Ruben Amorim's time at Manchester Unitedcame to an abrupt end after plenty of frustrations on and off the pitch. His squad struggled to adapt to his 3-4-3 formation and, following a period of inconsistent results and growing tensions with the hierarchy, Amorim was dismissed barely a week into the new year.

One aspect that became crystal clear during his tenure at United was his dissatisfaction with Marcus Rashford. A player who had served the club for a decade, Rashford is now on loan at Barcelona and it looks increasingly probable that Hansi Flick will make the forward's move permanent at the end of the campaign.

Amorim voiced concerns about Rashford's work rate under his management and didn't hold back after a fixture against Fulham in 2025. "It's always the same reason - the training, the way I see a footballer should do in life. It's every day, every detail," he said. "If things don't change, I will not change.

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"It's the same situation for every player, if you do the maximum and right things we can use every player. You can see on the bench we miss a bit of pace on the bench, but I would put [Jorge] Vital before a player who doesn't give the maximum every day."

The jibe about Vital, Amorim's 64-year-old goalkeeping coach, effectively sealed Rashford's fate at United. Having been largely frozen out shortly after the Portuguese coach arrived, he found temporary sanctuary at Aston Villa before securing his dream transfer to La Liga last summer.

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Amorim later admitted he found it difficult to get Rashford to embrace his philosophy. "What I say is I couldn't put Marcus to see the way you're supposed to play football and to train the way I see it," he said.

"And sometimes you have one player who is really good with one coach and the same player with another coach is different. I just wish the best to Rashford and Unai Emery, and they can connect because he's a very good player."

Amorim isn't the first manager to raise concerns about Rashford's work ethic. Both Erik ten Hag and Jose Mourinho have previously questioned the England international's attitude, with the Special One sharing similar views to his compatriot.

In a conversation with Hristo Stoichkov in 2018 following his own exit from Old Trafford, Mourinho famously remarked: "I think kids these days have a different social life than us, and players have around them an entourage, and I mean a personal entourage, the people that surround them, that protect them more, give them more affection, more excuses. They reach maturity more slowly.

"When we talk about Luke Shaw, [Anthony] Martial, [Jesse] Lingard, [Marcus] Rashford, we're talking about kids with great potential but still lack a word I can't say but that you like a lot... they lack a bit of that. Character, personality, as they say in Spain as well, bad blood, that natural aggression that you had."

Fellow former United manager Ten Hag identified what concerned him about Rashford. "I think he always knew. Every player knows, when your lifestyle is not right you can't perform in the league we have to perform in," he said.

"You don't get the right levels if you don't have a good and disciplined life away from Carrington. He needed some help, by backing him, for instance.

"But he has to do it himself, at the end of the day. He has to set his life right, his training attitude right, he has to set his match attitude right. When he sets his professionalism he will perform because he's a class player."

According to a report from The Athletic, Barcelona are keen to retain Rashford beyond his loan spell, which could signal a permanent departure from United.

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