The Nonsense Of Rashford To Spurs

Firstly I have to explain that I believe that Marcus Rashford is a very good footballer who plays in a position that is vital to the way Spurs currently set-up. He would be a very good addition to the squad if he was to rediscover the form thats been missing for the last year or so.

This is not really up for debate but I'm more interested in the thought process that leads people to think that this transfer might actually happen.

Rashford is a 27 year old England international who earns around £350k per week and is contracted at his club until 2028. Assuming that he's not prepared to take an enormous pay cut and would want a minimum four year deal, without even thinking about the potential transfer fee, his next club would be committing to approx £65-70m in wages. Lets say United were in a generous mood or the new boss really wants him out, you'd still be looking at a £40-50m transfer fee in addition to that.

Its quite well known that Spurs have a somewhat 'restrictive' wage policy in comparison to the clubs the owners expect the playing staff to compete with. Harry Kane is probably the only player in the clubs history to earn anywhere near that much and he had to score 200 goals and comethrough the Academy, costing the club nothing, before he got to that level.

A four or five year contact at Rashford's age would also break another ENIC 'golden rule', although there are circumstances where this doesn't apply, no 'resale value'. The club like to dress up investment in younger players as 'looking towards a bright future' but what they are looking for is football utopia. They want those young players to develop to the extent that they contribute to keeping the club in and around the European places whilst also increasing their own personal transfer value. If they can come through the academy so there's no initial outlay like Mikey Moore for example, even better.

As far as I can see there are three circumstances where the club will sign a prime age player with Premier League experience from another competing side:-

(1) Desperation - I use the signing of Solanke to show this point. Although he's a fine player and a great addition to the squad, it did take the 'recruitment' dept a year to replace Harry Kane. And even then they only spent about 70% of the fee received for Kane on Solanke. I also believe they were rather hoping that Richarlison would do the job. Never forget Solanke was the first first-choice striker ENIC have forked out for in over a decade.

(2) Relegation Club That Has To Sell - This is of course how we got Maddison, again a fine player, capable of both brilliance and complete shitness, so the ideal player for our club. Again, Harry Winks was used to make up the deal. Another player that cost the club nothing that helped reduce a transfer fee.

(3) Taking Advantage Of Another Clubs PSR Situation - Spurs haven't benefited from this with a prime age player yet but obviously Brennan Johnson had to be sold within a certain time frame by Notts Forest. They also tried to get another young player in the summer, Morgan Rogers out of Villa but were thwarted by the transfer schnanighans concocted between Forest, Newcastle, Villa & Chelsea to avoid censure.

Of course I might be completely wrong and come the opening of the window we see Marcus shaking hands with Ange at the training ground, holding up the shirt and telling us in his first official interview how he thinks our stadium is the best in the world and how much he's looking forward to watching 50 Cent there in July.

To me that would signify a real change in direction and if they can do that kind of thing once, they can do it again and again until the squad is at the level to seriously compete instead of just paying lipservice to it. It would also show that the club are genuine in their backing of the manager which would be great. However, they never really did that for Poch, so I'm not holding my breath.