It was inside the tight-knit press room at Craven Cottage following a 1-0 win over Fulham where Ruben Amorim completely took Marcus Rashford apart.
This was late January 2025 and by this point Rashford had not been in a Premier League matchday squad for approaching two months since being dropped by Amorim ahead of the Manchester derby.
Privately the tensions at management level had been brewing over the Rashford issue for some time. There are those who, still, point fingers at others for being the driving force behind forcing him out. Others still pin a lot of the blame on Amorim’s man-management skills.
But that night in south west London, Amorim went nuclear on Manchester United’s greatest academy player since Sir Alex Ferguson departed. In that moment, it totally changed the path for the two of them.
‘It’s always the same reason: the training, the way I see a footballer should do in life,’ Amorim said that night.
‘It’s every day, every detail. If things don’t change, I will not change.
Marcus Rashford is set to come up against Ruben Amorim this weekend as Man United take on AC Milan in a pre-season friendly
During his time at Old Trafford, Amorim froze out Rashford and put him in the ‘bomb squad’
‘You can see on the bench we miss a bit of pace on the bench. But I would put [Man United goalkeeper coach Jorge] Vital before a player who doesn’t give the maximum every day.’
It was the last line that was the kicker.
Amorim was sat in front of many microphones and television cameras claiming he would rather play a 63-year-old, who suffers from a noticeable limp, over a £325,000-a-week international calibre footballer. It looked categorically then like Rashford’s Manchester United story was done for good.
Sources speaking to Daily Mail Sport later questioned whether his handling of the situation called into question his ability to manage elite players.
Fast forward to December 2025 and following a 1-1 draw at home against West Ham, this time it was Kobbie Mainoo, yet to start a Premier League match at that point last season, who was to be hung out to dry by the Portuguese. Rashford was on loan at Barcelona by this point. No doubt he could empathise better than most as to how it felt.
‘I understand what you are saying,’ Amorim said in a really spiky press conference centred around his lack of trust in Mainoo, another shining light that emerged from the academy years prior.
‘You love Kobbie, he starts for England. But that doesn’t mean that I need to put Kobbie [in] when I feel that I shouldn’t put Kobbie [in], so it’s my decision.’
And now, remarkably, we are here, heading to Poland for Manchester United’s final pre-season friendly before the start of the 2026-27 season in which Amorim is managing the opposition, AC Milan, and both Rashford and Mainoo are primed to line up against the very man who kicked them to the curb.
There are sources close to both players who are eager to draw a line under the uncomfortable episode and that is understandable. Amorim is gone. They have not. In theory, they won.
But there are staff members at United working in backroom roles that spoke freely in Dublin after the penalty shootout win over Leeds United about just how much determination is inside the group to get one over Amorim, more so than Milan. That, too, is understandable.
Particularly on Rashford, there has been a real push at United not to make this weekend a sideshow. Amorim put Rashford into a ‘bomb squad’ last summer and news that seven AC Milan players have been told they are surplus to requirements won’t come as any surprise inside a highly-motivated United dressing room.
Fellow United academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo also barely featured under Amorim
The pair are now back with United, adding extra spice to this weekend’s friendly in Poland
Rashford doesn’t want a sideshow, though, neither does his current boss Michael Carrick, and after a pre-season in which he hasn’t won a single game – including a damning 3-0 loss to Chelsea which Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport claimed ‘sounded the alarm’ – it’s unlikely to be top of Amorim’s wish list either.
It is, however, inescapable at just how much has changed since that staggering undressing of Rashford at Fulham last year.
Days later Rashford was at Aston Villa on loan, and a secondary loan to Barcelona followed following his ‘bomb squad’ treatment, where he went on to win LaLiga and the Spanish Super Cup, all while Amorim unravelled at Old Trafford and was kicked out at the start of the year following an explosive press conference at Leeds.
Now, having edged out Leeds in Dublin, there is an irony that Amorim and United meet again with two players he cast aside set for central roles at United and he’s in the role of the opponent. It’s funny how football works like that.
Rashford’s return to the group – which didn’t always seem likely, not least when his No 10 shirt was given away to Matheus Cunha – in Ireland over the past week has been extremely well received by players. To many, he is far removed from the arrogant and lazy figure he was painted out to be.
‘He was great,’ new signing Youri Tielemans, who worked with Rashford while he was on loan at Aston Villa, said.
‘There had been so much talk about him and bringing pressure and the media around him, but I thought he was just so good, you know. He was very humble, he was just hard working, and from the first training you could tell his touch, his acceleration was just amazing.’
‘In some ways, it feels a fresh start, you know, with new players coming into the building, new challenges, new things to try and win, it’s quite exciting,’ Carrick said this week when asked about Rashford’s mindset.
What happens between now and the end of the window with Rashford remains up in the air. Carrick was noncommittal when asked categorically if the 28-year-old would be here following the transfer deadline, while figures upstairs, eager to trim the wage bill, have long been open to a move with a handful of Premier League rivals watching from afar with interest.
But nobody expected us to be here, with Amorim in the opposing dugout and Rashford, along with Mainoo, ready to be front and centre once more.
With an arm around the shoulder from Carrick, both players are ready to go and there’s no better storyline that going up against the very man who wrote you off as not good enough to play for your boyhood team.
Yes, both players are keen to draw a line under the whole thing, but revenge is sweet. No wonder some staff members at United are so desperate to win on Saturday.
