It looks like Marcus Rashford will have free time again this weekend, so perhaps his entourage could consider sitting him down in front of a brilliant new BBC Wales documentary about a player who actually considered wearing the number 10 shirt in the Manchester United was a privilege and something to cherish.
That would be Mark Hughes, an individual who, like Rashford, seemed quite calm and intense, after United signed him as a 20-year-old in 1980. “A little stern, a little deep and not overly enthusiastic” was United . Coach Ron Atkinson's first impression of a player who simply wasn't (and never has been) an extrovert.
The young man's friendships revealed much more about the type of individual he was. One weekend, as the documentary tells it, he was returning home to Ruabon, North Wales, to see Ian 'Bodger' Williams and other members of a group, all still in touch, whom he had known since primary school. .
In contrast, Rashford disappeared to New York in a ridiculous Louis Vuitton coat to watch the Knicks play basketball, or to Belfast to go on a bender and visit Lavery's pub, Dirty Onion bar and Thompson's Garage nightclub, wads of banknotes £20 – £10,000 in all – spilling out of a bag.
There was no 'entourage' for Hughes, who was no flowerpot, had no need for hangers-on and, as he himself said at the time, liked his own company. He was not averse to glare and drove home to Ruabon in a red Porsche. But he signed his contract with United in his mother's living room, the same one from which, sitting in his armchair, he conducted a television interview about his move to Barcelona in 1986.
He had never wanted to go. A request for a pay rise led to contract negotiations with United that spiraled out of control. He signed for Barcelona, according to what he told the documentary team, “because I didn't have the confidence to say 'I'm not going'.”
Marcus Rashford has been subject to loan interest away from Manchester United after being dropped
Rashford attended a New York Knicks game during an international break wearing a Louis Vuitton coat
But the disgraced star can draw inspiration from a club legend of yesteryear – Mark Hughes.
Reluctance was written all over his face as he sat in that big chair all those years ago. “Obviously I will regret leaving United because I've been there for so long,” he told his interviewer.
Rashford, a much fresher and more sophisticated young man with a much better opinion of himself, says he has “no regrets” about leaving United. Rather he had imagined that he too would head to Barcelona when United finally gave up all hope of correcting their attitude, before Christmas.
As anyone could have predicted, Barça are not even remotely interested in him, nor is any other big club. Those who have replaced him so far are players from Serie B, well below the pace in their respective divisions: Milan, eighth in Serie A, Borussia Dortmund, eight points from the top of the Bundesliga, and Monaco, third in the French League. already 12 points behind PSG.
God knows how Rashford, who says he feels “misunderstood” and “heartbroken”, despite years of coddling from United, would have coped with what happened to Hughes in Spain.
He had 90,000 disapproving Barcelona fans waving white handkerchiefs at him (the notorious white handkerchiefs), although he dealt with it with equanimity. He was loaned to Bayern Munich, flourished again and Alex Ferguson, newly arrived at Old Trafford, set out to bring him home to United.
It is widely forgotten that Hughes was PFA Player of the Year in his first season, in 1989. And that it was his pass, bent like a banana with the outside of his right boot, that set up Mark Robins' legendary third place finish in the FA Cup. round winner at Nottingham Forest in 1990, easing increasing pressure on Ferguson.
“That pass… I don't think there are many players who can do that,” David Beckham tells the documentary makers, smiling at the memory and describing the curve with his hand. Beckham's main contribution to the new film reveals how much he and his United-mad family adored Hughes.
“He had these thighs,” Beckham says, recalling how Hughes used them to control a ball that fell “50, 60, 70 feet from the sky.” 'My mom loved her thighs!'
Rashford is now 27 years old and could do with being dissuaded from his current sense of victimhood.
Hughes arrived in Barcelona and faced the fans' disapproval with equanimity
If Rashford could be convinced of his current sense of victimhood and aligned with the notion of redemption in football, then the documentary, which takes that word as its title, could speak to him.
Because when United faced Barcelona and their scarf flew in the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final in Rotterdam, that's what Hughes found.
In the 74th minute of the final, the goalkeeper went over the top and appeared to have deflected the ball too far in the process of clearing it. Beckham even accurately remembers commentator Brian Moore declaring the angle impossible and the opportunity gone.
Hughes simply passed the ball through the eye of a needle in front of him. “It was just a ping and it was like an arrow,” Beckham recalls, smiling at that memory as well. Ferguson, upon seeing the goal in the documentary, simply shakes his head.
Hughes was 27, the same age Rashford is now, and he stood imperiously in front of the United fans with that number 10 on his back at the Stadion Feyenoord. “A very, very sweet goal for a man considered a failure in Spain,” declares Moore.
My only regret is that the documentary, available on iPlayer, lasts only half an hour. It is the most compelling education imaginable for a washed-up United striker seemingly unable to save himself.
Another painful milestone for Mark Townsend's family
Mark Townsend, the West Brom fan who died at Hillsborough last September, would have turned 58 last Friday. It was another painful milestone for the family who mourn him but who this week received confirmation that a full inquest into his death will take place in Sheffield.
The coroner will consider, among other evidence, the testimony of the West Brom stewards at the stadium for the Sheffield Wednesday match that day and of the two West Brom fans (a paramedic and a doctor, both off duty) who attempted to in vain saving Mark. .
If anyone has anything to add, “the smallest thing can make a difference,” Mark's brother Steve tells me. Email me if you think you can help with a full and fair examination of the events.
Mark Townsend (pictured) died after a medical emergency in the stands at Hillsborough
The book was a legend and a gentleman.
Football mourns Tony Book, who won the League Cup, as a player and coach, and the European Cup Winners' Cup at Manchester City, for whom he became a beloved ambassador.
City's new staff asked him for his ID when the club moved to the Etihad and he saw the funny side of that. A legend and a gentleman.
Moyes' return is such a beautiful circularity
I said here last week that David Moyes was the man Everton needed and his stirring first press conference on Monday only strengthened that feeling.
He thought his last visit to Goodison would be as a guest of the club, who had invited him to visit before the club moved to Bramley-Moore Dock this summer.
“I thought it would be great to get back to Goodison before the end and beat my dad,” he said. 'My family was very rooted in Everton. Leaving was terrible because we were very close after 11 years.”
What beautiful circularity. I hope it is a happy return home.
David Moyes returned to Everton as their new manager at the weekend after leaving in 2013.
A club deeply in touch with its locality
The few days I spent last week at Salford City told me what a classy club it is, deeply in touch with its locality, with an outstanding new chief executive.
This season the club celebrates Emmeline Pankhurst and the Suffragette movement, which was deeply rooted in Salford, with a change strip and merchandise incorporating the Suffragette colors of purple, green and white.
How deeply unfortunate that Ryan Giggs seemed so determined to reintegrate into the public sphere, being front and center for the club's Cup tie in the Etihad dugout on Saturday.
As if to say that the nasty little details of the domestic abuse charges brought against them, which the jury couldn't agree on, were a distant memory.