Troy Deeney: Marcus Rashford’s application STINKS and it’s Man Utd’s fault…

I want Marcus Rashford to succeed and become the player we know he can be.

But we are now on a slippery slope of declining performance at Manchester United – and nothing changes from new manager to new manager.

So I have to ask him: do you even want to do this? Do you want to play football?

It's not an easy game, or an easy life. People think it's because of the amount of money and stuff, but there's a lot of nonsense going on in the background, a lot of stress.

And I don't see a scenario in the coming months or years where he throws it on his head and suddenly things work out.

Or he turns around and says, “I'm going to prove you wrong.”

That honestly makes me sad, especially because I know this will weigh on him mentally in the long run.

Can you get anything out of him? I'm not sure. He needs a stern hand, but even that doesn't seem to work sometimes.

He is 27, his prime years. He has all the qualities you would expect from a modern winger or striker, but at the moment he has the appetite of a 35-year-old.

Compare it to Jamie Vardy's attitude and desire at 37. It's chalk and cheese.

Rashford looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Everything is always other people's fault and his application stinks.

He's still capable of moments. I wouldn't be surprised if he scores the winner against Manchester City this weekend and then goes missing for the next few weeks.

He knows he can live on these 'moments' and nothing more, and that's not good enough.

But United bought this problem themselves.

They created this person by continuing to reward crappy behavior and performance with huge, unjustified contracts.

He has been put forward as the academy's favorite, the golden boy, but when adversity strikes, he thinks everyone is against him, instead of facing up and focusing on himself.

And it's the same old cycle. A new manager comes in and for three out of four games you see a 'new Rashford' and then he goes back to his old habits and old form.

He then starts to fall. We saw it on Thursday evening when we came on against Viktoria Plzen and United boss Ruben Amorim already seems to be fed up with him.

Look, I've been there. It's not fun when that happens.

As a striker you want to build some momentum, but I was at the Emirates when he came on against Arsenal last week. He was a disgrace.

Amorim summed it up best when he joined, telling Rashford that he will have full support but it is up to him as a player, as a person.

That's where the problem lies. No one wants to see Rashford fail, but if he continues to deliver these sub-par performances we will all keep saying the same things.

Some people say the environment at United is having a negative impact, but that's a poor excuse.

You don't see Harry Maguire or Bruno Fernandes acting or not giving it their all, do you?

Another academy graduate like Kobbie Mainoo does not behave because he has good role models around him in his position. He is hungry to improve.

So at what point do you take responsibility for your own actions and say, it's on me.

You can only fake it for so long if you're not a hard worker, you don't stick to a professional regimen and your heart isn't in it anymore.

At this point, Rashford is nothing more than a youth symbol from the past, a local boy who United are too afraid to move on due to the reaction of the fanbase.

But why would anyone in England want to hire Rashford?

Why would boss Mikel Arteta risk ruining all his hard work at Arsenal, building a culture of elite professionals and high standards for him?

Chelsea have a young, energetic squad that could breathe new life into him, but I think most of those players would look at him now and think, well, you're a waste of time.

And no one is going to pay his current wages – he's being rewarded as if he were one of the top three players in the Prem, yet he wouldn't end up in one of the top six starting XIs at the moment.

If I were to advise him, I would tell him to go abroad, but even then I'm not sure how that would go.

I feel sorry for Marcus, but he has had plenty of bad examples of players around him, or in his age group, who have gone down a similar path.

It should be enough to motivate you not to become one of them, someone like Jesse Lingard.

But Rashford doesn't see the warning signs all around him.

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