Stand-offs like Rashford and Amorim at Manchester United rarely end in genuine reconciliation

At this point, it would probably be more of a surprise if Marcus Rashford was brought back into Manchester United’s squad than if his current ban continued for another game, and possibly longer.

His side are fighting for points, four places above the Premier League’s relegation zone. Should they lose to Newcastle United at Old Trafford on Monday, it will be six defeats in December and the first time they have lost four in a row since 1961.

However, who can predict for sure that Ruben Amorim will bring Rashford back to a team that has scored fewer goals this season than 18th-placed Leicester City?

It feels unlikely as Amorim’s recent choices have made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t like what he sees or hears when it comes to one of the club’s highest paid players. Rashford has been left out of the last four squads and when a player is frozen out like that, the lesson of history is that stories rarely have happy endings.

Roberto Mancini broke up with Carlos Tevez (or was at least willing to tolerate him) after their relationship at Manchester City appeared to have disintegrated. Pep Guardiola did the same with Yaya Toure and in both cases the players came in from the cold to help City win a league title.

Tevez could even draw attention to the fact that he had spent four months in exile over the row that started when Mancini accused him of refusing to come on as a substitute during a Champions League game against Bayern Munich.

The Argentine disappeared to Buenos Aires for most of that time and was photographed on a golf course, leading to questions about whether he cared more about his golf handicap than playing for his club. So when he scored a hat-trick in one of his comeback games, a 6-1 win at Norwich City, he made a point of celebrating with a swing of the golf ball.

Perhaps it’s an unfair comparison in some respects given that Tevez’s dispute with City involved lawyers, some nasty public outbursts and open hostility rather than the same kind of issues that have led to Rashford’s removal from Amorim’s team – his attitude and lifestyle , in short, and the growing suspicion that a player with 60 caps has clouded his priorities.

The point here, though, is that it can be difficult to recall many occasions where something similar has happened to one of the Premier League’s A-listers and that player’s relationship with his manager has survived.

In theory it shouldn’t be too difficult, you might suppose, for a manager and player to talk it out and agree that whatever their differences, they can still be good for each other. In practice, however, this rarely happens.

So how does Rashford feel about United’s manager leaving him out of the squad for their games against Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Bournemouth and Wolves? Is he angry? Does he feel unfairly singled out? Or does he accept deep down that he’s been pushing his luck for some time, and if he’s honest, that he’s brought these problems on himself?

The only thing that can really be said for sure is that Rashford looks set to leave Old Trafford for another club, and we know this because he and his PR entourage have made sure to get it out. Nor is it the first time he has seriously considered leaving in the past few years.

United, in turn, would be open to selling him with the growing evidence that Rashford, at 27, is no longer the player everyone at Old Trafford expected and wanted him to be.

But a transfer is never going to be straightforward because of the numbers involved, and unfortunately for Rashford, potential buyers could be excused for having a few misgivings when the player in question earns more than £325,000 a week ($413,000) and has been out of form in longer than he would probably care to remember.

So the other option is for manager and player to reach some sort of understanding and agree to put the last few weeks behind them. And it’s clearly not straightforward either, when you consider that even when Jose Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba was at its most strained, he never left him out of the entire squad for one game, never mind four in a row.

Harry Maguire has shown it is possible to return to United’s starting XI after being frozen out, removed as captain and made available for transfer during Erik ten Hag’s time as manager.

However, it was a different set of circumstances as Maguire’s absence was based on footballing reasons rather than, as with Rashford, it is about what happens off the pitch as well as on it.

United fans can point out that Sir Alex Ferguson’s relationship with Wayne Rooney survived the player handing in a transfer request in 2010 and contemplating what would have been a treacherous move to Manchester City across town.

Perhaps the better comparison is what happened in the last few weeks of Ferguson’s reign, late in the 2012-13 season, when Rooney was removed from the team because the manager didn’t like the way he was living his life. The two men could barely make eye contact as they lined up to shake hands after Ferguson’s farewell match at Old Trafford and the presentation of the Premier League trophy.

The story at the time was that Ferguson had told his replacement, David Moyes, that he had lapped up Rooney’s departure as a going-away gift. Chelsea wanted to sign the English striker. But Moyes had other ideas – as did Ed Woodward in his first summer as United chief executive – and sorted it out in a frank discussion with Rooney.

“Do you still think you’re a top player?” asked Moyes. Rooney replied that yes, of course he did. “So, if you’re a top player, why are Chelsea only offering £25m for you?” Moyes would know. Rooney excelled and was United’s best player in the first half of the following season.

Maybe Rashford could benefit from that kind of tete-a-tete, and if it has the same kind of effect, maybe it would help Amorim too. Let’s not forget that we are talking about a player who, with 138 goals, is 15th on United’s all-time goalscoring list, ahead of Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Eric Cantona and various others considered United royalty.

Go back over the years, but there is a clear pattern that the exile of a high profile player is usually a manager signaling to those at the top that it is time to cut them loose.

You might remember Mikel Arteta doing something similar to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to spark his departure from Arsenal at a time when many fans considered him their best striker.

Guardiola did the same with Joao Cancelo due to problems behind the scenes at City. Mancini eventually gave up on Mario Balotelli and, as happened with Rooney, sometimes it takes the manager to leave for a player to stay.

Any Newcastle fan of a certain generation remembers Ruud Gullit’s infamous spell as manager and the mutiny caused when he dropped Alan Shearer, the local hero, for a derby defeat against Sunderland early in the 1999-2000 season.

The more relevant example, however, is Rob Lee, who was considered a Shearer ally, dropped from Gullit’s squad and made to train with the reserves. Lee, an England international, was not even given a squad number. But it was Gullit who lost the civil war and ended up resigning. Lee was brought back into the team by Bobby Robson and would later receive a testimonial season to mark his service to the club.

And Rashford? Perhaps the saddest part is that there was a time when it was easy to imagine that he, a former academy player who has been at the club since the age of seven, would one day be awarded a testimonial of his own.

Perhaps that may still be the case. It just doesn’t feel likely at the moment and if he is left out again we can probably conclude that Amorim is not willing to make exceptions just because of a player’s long association with the club.

(Top photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)