MARCUS RASHFORD says Erik ten Hag saved his Manchester United career after he thought about leaving the club.
The England striker, 25, enjoyed a personal best 30 goals in all competitions last season with the Red Devils’ new boss.
That came a year after he scored just five in a struggling team under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then interim coach Ralf Rangnick.
Mega-rich Paris Saint-Germain wanted the hitman — but the proud Manc saw Ten Hag could help him achieve his ambitions at his boyhood club.
Asked if he considered quitting, Rashford said: “Before the manager came maybe a bit. He came at the right time for me.
“He is ambitious. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind about that.”
Just 12 months on, Rashford is happy again and fresh off signing a new five-year deal with the club.
And he admits it was boss Ten Hag who convinced him to stay this summer and lead the drive for more trophies — and to join Manchester City and Arsenal in the title race.
Rashford, 25, added: “I enjoy scoring goals, I enjoy making assists, playing in the forward areas and trying to cause a threat to the other team.
“I felt just a little bit more freedom.
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“A little bit more stability gives you the baseline to try and showcase your abilities.
“We were just a little bit rigid in the past, sometimes you’re not enjoying your football.
“And that was the case with me. I wasn’t enjoying my football as much as I should be, as much I was used to enjoying it.
“Because of that, it influenced my performance and ultimately that’s how I am as a person — if I’m not happy then it’s difficult for me to play my best football.”
Ten Hag has meticulously designed the training schedule for the pre-season tour here in the United States.
There is a club chef travelling with the team to make sure they eat right and no phones are allowed as players, coaches and staff dine together.
Stars get messages to tell them what kit to wear the next day and Ten Hag has even been involved in picking hotels for the squad.
“If I’m not happy then it’s difficult for me to play my best football.”
Marcus Rashford
Rashford said: “He always wants you to improve, whether it’s physically or mentally.
“For us as players, it’s important he works on both sides with us and if he sees an obvious place to make improvement then he doesn’t shy away from telling it.
“I’m hungry to keep improving and the players and staff keep improving and pushing ourselves to be better than we were the year before.
“Ultimately that’s the only way we’re going to get back to winning trophies consistently.”
Rashford added to his 30 club goals last season with three during the World Cup for England — and now he wants to take things to another level.
He said: “It’s always the purpose of your career, you want to keep improving, sometimes it’s not always statistically but if you can improve your performance you will take it any way you can.
“You have to be consistent with it. It’s important I get consistent opportunities, it’s up to me to take it on. I have to keep getting in the right areas and hopefully the goals keep coming.”
Dutchman Ten Hag was always convinced he could get the best out of Rashford but insisted the player needed to have the ‘right attitude’ and be fully switched on from the first moment of games to the last.
Rashford said: “It’s concentration. If I’ve got the concentration, sometimes you might not have a chance all game and you get that one chance and you have to take it.
“If I can stay focused on that, then I think I can definitely score more goals than I did last season. But I have to be in the goalscoring positions to get the chances, that’s the main focus.”
For a United fan, it was tough for Rashford to see City win the Treble but he does not believe that 15-point gap they had on them last season in the Prem should be insurmountable as the Red Devils search for a first title since 2013.
“You’re looking at a 15-point gap to the top of the league We can easily pick off five games where we dropped three points, it’s about correcting the mistakes.”
Marcus Rashford, on catching Man City
He said: “I think consistency is the key. We’ve shown in one-off games we can beat them, they’ve shown they can beat us. It’s the consistency that sets them apart.
“I think the average points to win the league at the minute is 96. It’s a huge difference to what it was a few years ago, when 86 to 90 points could potentially win you the league.
“They’ve shown a new level of consistency and it’s up to the rest of us to close that gap.
“You’re looking at a 15-point gap to the top of the league We can easily pick off five games where we dropped three points, it’s about correcting the mistakes.”
And for homegrown hero Rashford, that feeling of scoring for Manchester United again next season is something he cannot wait for.
He said: “I don’t think the feeling ever gets old. You just want it more and more each time you score. It doesn’t get boring.”
It is fair to say football is making Rashford happy again.
