Forgotten English player swapped Premier League for Barcelona before Marcus Rashford

Marcus Rashford is officially a Barcelona player having completed his loan move from Manchester United but another Englishman has played for the Catalan giants since Gary Lineker was their star man

Marcus Rashford is already being widely described as the first English player to represent Barcelona since Gary Lineker – but that is forgetting a now Championship regular who headed to Camp Nou with a reputation as the latest midfield wunderkind.

Marcus McGuane arrived in Spain from Arsenal in 2018 but made just one first-team appearance during two tricky years spent mostly with the La Liga giants’ reserves – coming off the bench in a Catalan Super Cup game against Espanyol in March 2018.

The now Bristol City player, 26, suggested last season that he was too inexperienced to handle the pressure of his big move when he left Arsenal in January 2018. Having arrived in Spain he had a £25m release clause tagged on and was being talked up as a future Three Lions star.

“I feel like when I was a little bit younger I’d been given quite a lot early and there was high expectations of me and maybe I wasn’t, I’m not sure, mentally ready for everything,” McGuane told BBC Radio Bristol last season.

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“I wasn’t in the right mind frame to be able to deal with everything at certain times. I feel like I’ve grown, I’ve learned my trade. I’ve had real tough, difficult times in football and I feel like it just makes you more grateful for everything you do have and definitely makes you mentally stronger so I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Rashford’s loan move from Manchester United was confirmed yesterday evening with the forward’s deal including an option for the deal to be made permanent next summer.

United head coach Ruben Amorim’s relationship with Rashford broke down last December when he was cut from the United first-team squad.

He was then sent out on loan to Aston Villa in January and scored four goals and six assists in 17 appearances. But when Villa decided against making that deal permanent in June, Rashford set his sights on Barca.

Barca will pay the entirety of his wages after Rashford agreed to take a 15 per cent pay cut from his £325,000-a-week salary. They can also sign him for €30million (£26m) next summer if he does well.

Earlier this summer, United made it clear that they would happily sell Rashford to whichever club would stump up £40m. His contract with the club runs until June 2028, so their asking price wasn’t outrageous, especially considering they believed he was worth £100m in April 2024 when Paris Saint-Germain were sniffing around.

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