IMAGINE if, 18 months ago, you had told Manchester United fans that Harry Maguire would be handed a new contract and Marcus Rashford would be frozen out. They’d have wanted to burn down Old Trafford. Which just goes to show you the importance of showing a good professional attitude in times of adversity. So my message to Rashford would be this: Stop talking, certainly stop posting on social media, knuckle down and prove to Ruben Amorim and your team-mates that you deserve to be a United player.

And remember what it was like for Maguire a year or two ago — which is far worse than anything that’s happened to Rashford. Erik ten Hag humiliated Maguire by stripping him of the club captaincy. Every time Maguire was partly responsible for a United or England goal, entire press conferences would be dominated by questions over his form. Yet Maguire was a perfect pro, he stuck to the task of proving himself and here he is now as a key member of United’s first team and with a contract extension until 2026.

Maguire never said he wanted a transfer. He didn’t go on social media. He didn’t act like a baby. Remember the timeline. When Amorim took over at United, Rashford started the first two ­Premier League games, scoring three goals. CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS. Two weeks later, he was left out of the squad for the Manchester derby, which United won, along with Alejandro Garnacho.

Within days Marcus was conducting an interview in which he said he was ready for a new challenge elsewhere. Meanwhile, Garnacho worked his way back into the first team, which shows what can happen if you don’t act like a prima donna. If Rashford remains at Old Trafford beyond Monday’s transfer deadline, he needs to follow Maguire’s example. People keep telling me I’m harsh on Marcus but there is nothing personal. Marcus needs to realise that there is no agenda against him.

When he was doing great things on and off the pitch, he was lavished with praise. He even got an MBE!. I’d love it if in a year’s time I was writing an apology here, saying that I’d got it totally wrong about him. But I doubt if I will have reason to. If I do sound harsh then it’s because I know from personal experience that far worse happens to footballers who have done nothing wrong. Players get singled out by managers, frozen out of teams and bombed out of clubs all the time.

I’ll give you a few personal examples. One was when the Italian coach Walter Mazzarri came to Watford and rarely started me, frequently suggesting in public that I wasn’t giving enough in training. This was entirely unjustified. You could  accuse me of having a bad game or a bad spell but never a bad work ethic. But at least Rashford can have arguments with Amorim in English. Mazzarri could barely speak a word, so we often found ourselves trying to have blazing rows via an interpreter.

We’d rant and rage at each other — with this poor interpreter stuck between two big blokes with big egos with steam coming out of their eyes — and by the time he’d translated what either of us said, the sting had gone out of the argument. It was like if you’re having a row with your missus on the phone and just as you’re getting to your best point, you lose phone reception — you can never really start the argument properly again!.

Then, after Watford were relegated in 2020, I was one of five senior pros who were frozen out of the first-team squad and made to train away from the main group because they wanted to off-load us for financial reasons. We didn’t like it but we always turned up on time, trained properly and didn’t complain publicly. I ended up staying that season, because a move to Tottenham couldn’t be finalised, and I played my part in winning promotion.

The previous season, Nigel Pearson arrived as manager and challenged me — just to prove to the rest of the dressing room that nobody was safe. I respected Nigel and on that occasion, a combative approach worked. When I managed Forest Green Rovers briefly last season, I did publicly criticise my players. I want to manage again and, if I do, I’d keep that sort of criticism in house. Thierry Henry recently told me that he’d had a go at his players in the media while managing Monaco.

He said players of our generation could take it but that times have changed. I agree. Now players are rewarded with £300,000-a-week, five-year contracts for half-decent form, then think the world owes them a living and that they’re above taking any stick. So I have no problem with Amorim calling out Rashford — even last weekend’s jibe that he would rather have his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach on the bench, rather than a player who didn’t give his all.