How Marcus Rashford became a B-list player entrenched in victimhood - and what he should do to save himself, writes IAN HERBERT
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It seems Marcus Rashford will have time on his hands again this weekend, so perhaps his entourage might consider sitting him down in front of a brilliant new BBC Wales documentary about a player who actually viewed wearing the No 10 jersey at Manchester United as a privilege and something to cherish.
![[Rashford attended a New York Knicks game during an international break in a Louis Vuitton coat]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/16/92139723-14283979-Jalen_Brunson_greeted_Rashford_courtside_ahead_of_the_NBA_match_-a-1_1736871842076.jpg)
That would be Mark Hughes, an individual who, just like Rashford, seemed rather quiet and intense, after United had signed him as a 20-year-old in 1980. ‘A bit dour, a bit deep and not terribly enthusiastic’ was United manager’s Ron Atkinson first impression of player who was simply not – and never has been - an extrovert.
![[But the out-of-favour star can take inspiration from a club legend of yesteryear in Mark Hughes]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/16/94086083-14283979-image-a-3_1736872031862.jpg)
The young man’s friendships revealed far more about the kind of individual he was. Of a weekend he would, as the documentary relates, head home to Ruabon, in North Wales, to see Ian ‘Bodger’ Williams and other members of a group, all still in touch, whom he’d known from junior school.
![[Rashford is 27 now and could do with being talked out of his current sense of victimhood]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/16/94086091-14283979-image-a-4_1736872098231.jpg)
Contrast Rashford, disappearing off to New York in a ridiculous Louis Vuitton coat to watch the Knicks play basketball, or to Belfast for a bender taking in Lavery's pub, the Dirty Onion bar and Thompson's Garage nightclub, wads of £20 notes - £10,000 in all - spilling out of a bag.
![[Hughes was brought to Barcelona and faced down the disapproval of fans with equanimity]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/16/94086067-14283979-Hughes_was_brought_to_Barcelona_and_faced_down_the_disapproval_o-a-18_1736872823611.jpg)
There was no ‘entourage’ for Hughes, who was not a wall flower, didn’t need hangers-on and, as he put it at the time, liked his own company. He was not averse to razzle-dazzle, driving home to Ruabon in a red Porsche. But he signed his United contract in his mum’s front room – the same one from which, sitting in her armchair, he conducted a TV interview about his move to Barcelona, in 1986.
![[Mark Townsend (pictured) died after a medical emergency in the stands at Hillsborough]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/14/16/90314377-14283979-West_Bromwich_Albion_posted_an_online_tribute_to_Baggies_fan_Mar-a-11_1736872464603.jpg)
