Wayne Rooney has told Marcus Rashford to improve his body language and work rate if he wants to stay at Manchester United, and has called on the club to make four more signings before the transfer window closes.
Rooney's message to Rashford
Speaking on the first episode of Stick to United from The Overlap, Rooney said: “I think we know he’s [Rashford] got the ability, he’s shown that. For me, has he got the hunger? Does he want to play for Manchester United?”
“Now, if he wants to play for Manchester United, I’ve been there in 2010 when I asked to leave the football club. There’s a stage where you have to rebuild a relationship with the fans. The easiest way to do that is to work hard and body language. You can have a bad game and give the ball away and make mistakes, but if the fans see you working hard and putting a shift in for the team, they’ll accept that to a certain point.”
Rooney added: “Marcus’ body language, even when he came on [vs Milan], his body language isn’t great. So it might be something he has to work on. He might have to work with someone to make his body language look better. I think his work rate has to improve, but if he wants to be at the football club, he just needs to knuckle down.”
Rooney wants Rashford to succeed at United
Rooney explained why he wants to see Rashford thrive at Old Trafford rather than elsewhere. “I don’t want to see Marcus Rashford doing well at Aston Villa or Barcelona, I want to see him do well at Manchester United and scoring goals for Man United. But that means he has to get his head down, work his socks off and then be more positive. Play with a smile on his face.”
Rashford returned to United this summer after a loan spell at Barcelona, where the La Liga club declined to sign the England international permanently. The 28-year-old came off the bench in United’s friendly loss to AC Milan at the weekend, and his long-term future remains uncertain.
Four transfer demands
United have until September 1 to complete their summer transfer business. So far they have signed Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Karl Darlow, but Rooney believes more are needed.
He said: “I thought Luke Shaw had a really good season last season, but he didn’t have the best game against AC Milan. So I don’t think you can rely on Luke Shaw to be consistent for the whole season. That leads me to Lewis-Skelly, and we’re hearing that he’s available for not much money. I think it’s an absolute no-brainer.”
“If you can get a player who can play left-back, he can play centre midfield. He’s young, he’s got a massive future ahead of him. I think it’s an absolute no-brainer if you can bring him in. I’d like to see another centre-back, I’d like to see another central midfield player and another centre forward. So I think there’s still a lot of work there to be done, but I think it’s really important that the players they do bring in, they get it right and they get the right players in.”
