‘Smokescreen’ – Club accused of dirty tricks ahead of Manchester United negotiations

Barcelona want to sign Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford on a permanent deal in the summer.

Last July, Manchester United let the forward join the La Liga winners on a loan deal with an option to buy.

He spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa, who wanted to keep him. Last month, Barcelona sporting director Deco revealed this, and that Rashford made a financial effort to arrive at the Camp Nou.

The England international has scored 10 goals and contributed 13 assists from 39 games for Barcelona so far.

His La Liga stats are as follows:

• Goals: 4
• Expected Goals: 5.84
• Assists: 6
• Expected Assists: 3.79
• Big chances created: 5
• Key passes per game: 1.2
• Shots on target per game: 0.9

However, the Manchester United owned player hasn’t scored or assisted for Barcelona over the past two months.

On March 18th, Sport Witness relayed news that Barca will decide whether to keep him based on his performances until the end of the season. Later that week, Hansi Flick said the attacker’s recent struggles were down to “some issues”, probably related to his fitness.

Dirty tricks on Marcus Rashford transfer

CA Osasuna winger Víctor Muñoz has emerged as a new target for Barcelona. The Catalan media insists he’s the main target to improve the attack for next season.

Tuesday’s edition of Diario de Noticias looks at these claims and provides their own take on Muñoz and Marcus Rashford.

Although the Catalan press talks about Barca’s interest, the deal is almost impossible because of Real Madrid. They sold him to Osasuna in July 2025 and retain 50% of his rights.

Should Barcelona make advances, the newspaper suggests Los Blancos will exercise the right of first refusal to block his move to the Camp Nou. The Catalan club’s financial situation is also unlikely to allow them to spend big on him.

The newspaper state: ‘Within Osasuna’s board, there is a conviction that this media “noise” surrounding Víctor Muñoz is nothing more than a smokescreen to put pressure on Marcus Rashford.’

Barca want to take the Manchester United man on a permanent deal.

Diario de Noticias add: ‘By leaking a supposed interest in Osasuna’s star player, Barcelona is trying to send a message to Rashford’s camp that “we have alternatives,” using Víctor’s excellent performance as a mere bargaining chip to lower the cost of other deals.’

Barca’s dirty tricks won’t pay off on club-level

Barcelona employing dirty tricks to try and persuade Manchester United to lower their demand is unlikely to pay off. The purchase clause is €30m and if the Spanish side don’t offer this price, Marcus Rashford won’t continue at the Camp Nou.

However, the club may be able to convince the England international to accept a lower salary than he was expecting. Using Víctor Muñoz chatter as a lever to do this would not be entirely out of character for the Catalan club.