Aston Villa ‘fight with rivals to sign Marcus Rashford permanently’
Aston Villa are set to be in a fight with their rivals to try and sign Man United forward Marcus Rashford on a permanent contract in the summer transfer window.
Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson believes that the 27-year-old will “have other options” at the end of the season.
The England international moved to Villa Park during the January transfer window on a loan deal until the end of the season in a bid to get his career back on track.
Marcus Rashford had options in January
While Rashford joined Unai Emery’s squad in January, he did have other options available to him.
Villa provided Rashford with the opportunity to remain in the Premier League and play Champions League football though, giving him the chance to continue performing at the highest level possible.
Rashford made his Villa debut during their 2-1 victory against Tottenham on Sunday (9 February), as he appeared from the bench in the second half.
Marcus Rashford joining Aston Villa was a positive career move
“We know he still harbours ambition for England and all the stuff that we’ve talked about and spoke about,” Robinson told Football Insider.
“We’ve never questioned his quality.
“You look [at] two or three seasons ago, the levels he was hitting and that’s why at times the criticism is levelled at him.
“When it’s constructive criticism not about his personal life not about what he does on and off the field or how he conducts himself because we don’t know that.
“A lot of it is presumption a lot of it is what we hear of managers who don’t want him at a football club if he gets back to the levels that we know he can on a football pitch.
“Aston Villa are gonna be in a fight to buy and there’ll be a lot of players though a lot of teams looking at Marcus Rashford thinking we’ll have a bit of that in the summer.
“It’s not just a free role attacking-wise. Unai Emery, you look at the way that Villa play, they’re structured, he expects a lot of his wide players, even the players that he plays in the hole at times, the three in behind Ollie Watkins, they’ve got a lot of defensive responsibilities to do as well.
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing for Marcus Rashford, I really don’t because he’s got a manager who will demand from him and he’s in a situation now where he’s got to produce.
“It could work really well for him and like I say, Aston Villa will probably want to keep him at the end of the season, and he’ll have other options.
“But it was a move that needed to happen for him, it’s a really good move for him.”
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