Marcus Rashford has confirmed that last summer\u2019s loan to Barcelona capped a negotiation process that stretches further back than was publicly known. The agreement ended a lengthy transfer saga that, he says, had been running behind the scenes for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just believe that things happen when they\u2019re supposed to happen,\u201d Rashford told ESPN .<\/p>\n
He acknowledged previous contact with the club before the move and described the current spell as an opportunity he intends to make the most of. \u201cIt\u2019s not the first time I spoke with Barcelona about potentially coming here, but for whatever reasons it didn\u2019t happen in the past and now is my opportunity to make it happen. I feel like there\u2019s no time like the present now. So I just take things day to day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key thing for me is just to continue to improve because when you retire, you\u2019re going to miss everything\u2014the good stuff, the bad stuff\u2014you’re going to miss it about the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day I just take it day by day and just try to improve from the day before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barcelona are under no obligation to sign Rashford permanently next summer and any decision on his future is not expected until later in the season. His early form will be important in that assessment. In 12 appearances across all competitions he has five goals and six assists, operating mainly as a left winger but also covering the right and playing as a central striker at times.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the decision to leave Manchester United, Rashford pointed to the scale of his time with his former club and a desire for a fresh challenge. \u201cIt was so many years in one place,\u201d Rashford reflected. \u201cPeople forget this, but 24 years, 23 years of my life was with Manchester United . So sometimes you just need a change. I think maybe this is the case with me and yeah, I\u2019m enjoying everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure [I want to stay]. I\u2019m enjoying this football club and I think for anybody who loves football, Barcelona is one of the key clubs in the history of the game. For a player is an honour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rashford says talks with Barcelona predated last summer. He aims to improve and win a permanent move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,1163],"tags":[1081,983,1162],"class_list":["post-3995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-transfers","tag-adaptation","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3995","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=3995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}