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Marcus Rashford is edging towards a move to Barcelona, who are ready to pay the fee that will turn his loan switch into a permanent one, but it is more than £70million less than Manchester United once demanded.

The Englishman made a move to Spain in the summer with his loan agreement including a £26m fee should the Catalans want to land him for the long-term. Reports indicate that they will pay the sum to acquire him permanently.

Rashford has been on United's books since he was a boy and has endured peaks and lulls during his career at Old Trafford. His time at the club looked bleak when Ruben Amorim was at the helm, and even after his dismissal the club have no plans to bring him back into the fold.

But the £26m that Barcelona are ready to pay, according to Sport, is miles off the £100m plus price tag that Thomas Tuchel wanted to fork out when he was in charge at PSG and determined to land Rashford.

Back in 2020 the German was at the helm in Paris and had seen Rashford show nerves of steel to score a stoppage time penalty which dumped PSG out of the Champions League knockout stages at the Parc des Princes.

• Man Utd news: Marcus Rashford agreement reached as Michael Carrick makes Ruben Amorim change

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The Independent reported at the time that Tuchel had made the forward his top priority ahead of the new season. United would only entertain a figure that went north of £100m and the PSG boss was working hard to convince the hierarchy that Rashford was worth the money. In his discussions the now England boss claimed that people 'didn't realise how good a player Rashford actually is'.

Comparisons were drawn with Kylian Mbappe and some in the French capital saw Rashford as the perfect foil - or even long-term replacement - for the World Cup winner amid constant links with a move to Real Madrid - a switch he would eventually make.

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PSG never got their man and Rashford would prove to be a big hit that season, scoring 21 times. He would better that total two years later when, under Erik ten Hag, he hit the 30-goal mark for the one and only time in his career.

Either side of that prolific year Rashford was notably quiet, failing to even hit double figures in three of the five seasons that followed PSG's interest. United may now be resigned to his departure having created a forward line that doesn't plan for Rashford's return, but they will have to accept a mammoth loss on a fee they could've landed.

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