Following Marcus Rashford’s announcement that he’s open to leaving United, I thought I would sit down and reflect on the player’s time at the club.

In 8 full seasons at United, Rashford has scored a high of 17 league goals twice. Both of those seasons came in counter-attacking sides under Solskjaer and Ten Hag. Neither of those seasons were particularly impressive for the club generally.

It’s not Marcus Rashford’s fault that because he played during a weak period for Manchester United, he was given more responsibility for team performances than he should have done – or would have done – during any other period in the club’s recent history.

Imagine that Rashford came through 10 years sooner than he did. Same ability, same character, same trajectory. That would mean he was coming into a squad with an abundance of talent, experience and leadership. A stable club, with a clear hierarchy, culture and management.

Leading the line through that time (2006-2014) were Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov, Louis Saha, Nani, Ryan Giggs, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez and Robin Van Persie.

It seems fair to start with the question: would Rashford have even made the team?

Even if your answer is yes, do you think he would have amassed 287 premier league appearances in the same time-frame, placing him 10th in the clubs overall history?

Let’s take another player from that time-frame: Danny Welbeck. In his time at United, Welbeck played 142 times scoring 30 goals. He provided support to Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Robin Van Persie, making his debut in the 2008/09 season, but not making a significant contribution to the team until the 2011/12 season, where he scored 9 goals in 30 appearances (including 23 starts) – not a bad return, but not enough to win a title, as was proven when City lifted the Premier League trophy in May that year.

What happened after that season sums up the difference between United then and United now. During the summer transfer window, Ferguson, who realised Welbeck, Rooney and Hernandez didn’t have enough goals between them to win the league, signed Robin Van Persie – a proven goalscorer in the Premier League at the peak of his powers.

Welbeck’s stats dropped to 27 appearances the next season ( 15 starts) scoring 1 single goal. United won the league thanks largely to Van Persie’s 26 league goals.

So what’s my point?

It would have been wrong then for Sir Alex Ferguson to rely on Danny Welbeck to score enough goals to consistently win United titles. It is wrong now for whichever United manager (and there have been many in recent times) to rely on Marcus Rashford to score enough goals to consistently win United titles.

Rashford’s best scoring season in the league was 17 goals. His average goals per season in the league is 8.7. Louis Saha scored 13 goals in a season. Dimitar Berbatov scored 20, twice. Rooney, 27 twice, 26 once. Hernandez 13.

Rashford’s best season was good. But he was largely the club’s main goal threat, the guy chiefly responsible for supplying the goals. The reality is that his ability was never going to live up to this.

To put it in even greater context, Roque Santa Cruz, Benni McCarthy and Charlie Austin all scored 17 goals in a Premier League season. And they achieved those feats at lower quality teams than an admittedly low quality United team.

To be the main man at United you need to be one of the best – if not the best – goalscorer in the league. You need to be a generational talent. Rashford is a good player, he has had good seasons scoring a good amount of goals. But at this level ‘good’ is not good enough and Rashford has paid the price for years of having too much expectation placed on his ‘good’ skillset.

Had Rashford come through 10 years earlier, he would have been thought of as a good squad player, supporting Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Berbatov and the rest. He would have made valuable contributions off the bench and in european and cup competitions. He would have been paid handsomely, but not been one of the top earners. He may have even had to move elsewhere to get first team football.

He would have been valued by the fans as a ‘local boy done good’ and would have had his name sung to the rafters at every home game. It’s the cruel reality of the post-Ferguson United era that Marcus Rashford has been held to standards he is – through no fault of his own – unable to meet.

Is it a greater failure to achieve your natural ceiling as a player, or to pay that player £350k per week to be the player he cannot be?