Ryan Giggs has revealed that Pep Guardiola once made clear how highly he rated Marcus Rashford, saying he would have signed the forward for Manchester City immediately. The former Manchester United winger shared the story from a dinner hosted by Sir Alex Ferguson \u201ceight or nine\u201d years ago, where he sat alongside Guardiola and decided to ask a direct question about United\u2019s best players.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents: The Debrief, Giggs said he challenged the City manager to name the player he liked most at Old Trafford. Guardiola first asked him to guess, but the answers Giggs offered, David de Gea and Luke Shaw, were both wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018The best player at Man Utd [is] Marcus Rashford. I would take him tomorrow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Giggs said he was taken aback by the response, adding: \u201cWhat\u2019s [Guardiola] seeing? And that was obviously as a center forward,\u201d a reference to Rashford\u2019s early impact as a replacement for Anthony Martial.<\/p>\n
The exchange was hypothetical, and there was no realistic chance of Rashford moving across Manchester. Even so, it offers an intriguing view of how Guardiola saw him at the time, and how different things might have looked had that imagined move ever happened.<\/p>\n
In 2017, City were moving toward a historic 100-point season. Their striking options were Sergio Ag\u00fcero and Gabriel Jesus, who combined for 47 goals, while Raheem Sterling operated on the left, Leroy San\u00e9 on the right and Bernardo Silva had just arrived. Guardiola also handed a debut to 17-year-old Phil Foden.<\/p>\n
Foden stands as a clear example of Guardiola\u2019s work with young players, and Rashford might have developed in a similar environment. At the same time, Guardiola\u2019s record shows how quickly forwards can be moved on. Ag\u00fcero, despite his status, had only three strong years under him before injuries and age reduced his influence. Sterling left aged 27, San\u00e9 after four seasons, Ferran Torres after 18 months, and Jesus departed in 2022.<\/p>\n
Rashford\u2019s own return to the side this season has been a positive one. He has started twice, been used at half-time once, and has offered a threat from the left. He is still without a goal or assist, but Giggs believes the key is effort, especially the work off the ball that Ruben Amorim has said was missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAssists, goals,\u201d carry importance. \u201cBut also you need to do [what] will get the fans [on board]. Forget the other stuff, they\u2019ll forgive you for dribbling and getting tackled or hitting a shot over\u2014not all the time, obviously. But they won\u2019t forgive you for not tracking back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Marcus and I want him to do well. I wasn\u2019t sure if it was right for him to come back because \u2026 just the whole hype. But he\u2019s got the talent. He was running at players. He was tracking back. [In] games, just do that. Do that for a season. You will be a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giggs, who made 963 appearances for United, knows better than most what the club\u2019s supporters value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Giggs revealed Guardiola once said Rashford was United\u2019s best player and would be signed tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,2019],"tags":[180],"class_list":["post-19318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united-news","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}