Marcus Rashford: Omitted from England Squad for Euro 2024 despite Loyalty and Talent

Marcus Rashford is still in the England squad. The problem is that it is only in the Marks & Spencer adverts for their range of clothing inspired by Euro 2024. The player will follow the tournament remotely, after his omission from the group of thirty-three preselected announced by Gareth Southgate on May 21. Ivan Toney, suspended for eight months for placing 232 bets on football matches (some of which involved his club, Brentford), is one of the lucky ones.

Ivan Toney, 28 years old, two caps, zero goals in more than a thousand minutes of play in the Premier League since February 17, was preferred to Marcus Rashford, 26 years old, seventeen goals and sixty caps to his credit, and probably a starter for Manchester United against Manchester City in the FA Cup final this afternoon.

Rashford has never been unworthy in the selection

Marcus Rashford, who had participated in all of the Three Lions’ qualifying matches for the upcoming Euros, except the first two – when he was injured -, who started in a crucial 3-1 against Italy played in last October at Wembley, and had also scored the goal which allowed the English to take the advantage in this meeting.

Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford

Credit: Imago

Rashford’s sidelining has nothing to do with his current physical condition. He also did not ask to be left aside by his coach,like Ben White did a few months ago

. He never failed, quite the contrary, when he wore the jersey of his selection.

In 2021-22, at the end of another rotten season with Manchester United – five goals in thirty-two matches for the Red Devils -, forgotten by Southgate during England’s preparation for the World Cup, he responded present on D-day, to the point of finishing as the selection’s top scorer during the tournament, ahead of Harry Kane, tied with Bukayo Saka, but having scored his three goals at the rate of one every 46 minutes spent on the pitch

.

This was all yesterday. Nothing at all, or an eternity, it depends. Marcus Rashford will not be in Germany, while Ivan Toney may be there.

Toney, but not Rashford…

Gareth Southgate, however, has a reputation for placing loyalty at the forefront of the qualities he looks for in his players, and for practicing what he preaches when it comes to making his choices. Few other managers would have shown as much confidence in Jordan Henderson as he did for so long, when it was obvious that the midfielder who had gone to collect riyals in Saudi Arabia no longer had a place at this level. Henderson was nevertheless part of the group which played in the Euro qualifiers.

“As for Marcus, I just feel like other players who play in the same part of the pitch have had better seasons, it’s as simple as that,” Southgate says by way of explanation. This certainly applied to Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen, who excelled with Aston Villa and West Ham, or Eberechi Eze, often dazzling with Crystal Palace. But Ivan Toney, really? And what about Dominic Solanke, U20 world champion with England in 2017, exceptional with Bournemouth, fourth top scorer in the Premier League in 2023-24, also left behind for this Euro?

Ivan Toney

Credit: Getty Images

It’s no secret that Rashford is experiencing particularly difficult times with his club, and precisely because it is “his” club, with which he has been linked since his early childhood. It’s not the first time either.

United, the talent stifler

During the time of Alex Ferguson, Manchester United was a space in which footballers could not “cross a threshold”, but enter another dimension. This was the case for Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Andrei Kanchelskis, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Marcus Rashford

Credit: Eurosport

Southgate could have ignored this, as he did in 2022, and been rewarded for it. He preferred to cut to the chase. Some saw it as confirmation that the manager praised for his ability to unite the most diverse personalities around the “England” project was also capable of doing bad to do good.

2024-05-24 21:37:00
#Marcus #Rashford #Gareth #Southgate #preferred #leave #Euro