There will be something to monitor for Aston Villa fans when it comes to Marcus Rashford. Despite having a successful loan spell in B6, there wasn't another club willing to take a chance on the England international outright. Instead, he secured a loan move to Barcelona and will be playing in La Liga for the upcoming campaign.
It was, of course, known that a path back to Manchester United was never going to materialize. Still, there was something of a surprise that he wasn't able to find a new permanent club.
A lot of that will have to do with his current wage demands. Depending on what was discussed on that front, it would have proven difficult for too many sides to fork over the type of money that he was making at United. There would only be so many clubs able to even consider making a move for that weekly sum.
Even so, his play was good enough away from United, in which there should have been at least a little more interest, or one would think at least.
Now at Barca, there is a lot that will be answered. Rashford had problems at his parent club under various managers. Yet, with Unai Emery, things went exceptionally well. Now Rashford will be in a Hansi Flick system that already has a lot of talent in the attack and that has looked exceptional under the German throughout much of the past season.
How Rashford adapts in Spain will be immensely telling.
Possible Aston Villa option later on
The forward has the chance to validate his current value and show that his time in B6 was far from a one-off, that the issues were indeed solely on the happenings at United.
If, on the other hand, it turns out not to be a successful time under Flick, Villa would at that point become an obvious permanent landing spot. Perhaps Rashford would then be insistent on his wages, in which case a move would never be able to come to fruition. Assuming that he then recognizes how good he had it under Emery and how well the club continues to develop, however, one would think he'd be willing to take something of a haircut to return to Villa.