Youri Tielemans Confident in Marcus Rashford's Potential at Manchester United

Youri Tielemans is relishing a reunion with Marcus Rashford at Manchester United – and he is convinced the forward can still light up Old Trafford if given a genuine chance this season.

Rashford has rejoined first-team training at his boyhood club this week after 18 turbulent months away, a spell that saw him loaned out and frozen out by former United manager Ruben Amorim. His long-term future in Manchester is still uncertain. Barcelona, where he spent last season, turned down the option to make his move permanent for £26 million.

Before that, Rashford and Tielemans shared a dressing room at Aston Villa in the second half of the 2024-25 campaign. Rashford arrived in the Midlands with headlines swirling around him, his row with Amorim dominating the agenda and his every move scrutinised.

Under that glare, he still delivered. Rashford helped Villa reach the Champions League quarter-finals, where they bowed out to eventual winners PSG. Tielemans watched it all from close quarters – and the Belgian has not forgotten the impression Rashford made in such a short, high-pressure stint.

"He was great," Tielemans said. "There had been so much talk about him and bringing pressure and the media around him, but I thought he was just so good. He was very humble, he was just hard working, and from the first training you could tell his touch, his acceleration was just amazing. That was just what we needed at the time at Villa as well, so he did many good things in that time and hopefully he can bring them here."

The hope now is that the same qualities that briefly powered Villa’s European run can be unlocked in a United shirt again.

Familiar faces in the dressing room should help. Rashford is not the only link to Tielemans’ past; the midfielder also knows Harry Maguire and first-team coach Jonny Evans well from their time together at Leicester City.

"I played with Harry for just a bit less than six months and it was great at the time," Tielemans recalled. "You could see him and Jonny had a great partnership. Harry was younger at the time and Jonny was guiding him a bit more, but you could see his qualities on the ball.

"Defensively, he is rock solid, so I think he has improved a lot over the years as well. On Jonny, Jonny has always been a main character. He has always been trying to educate young players and he welcomed me at Leicester, and now here.

"It is a bit weird to see him as staff member, to be honest, but no, it is going great. He knows me, he knows what I need and what I can bring to the team, so it helps me as well."

For Tielemans himself, simply pulling on a United shirt has been a long time coming. This move is, as he puts it, third time lucky.

"It is a great achievement for any player to end up here," he said. "There has been two times that I spoke with the club, but it did not achieve to anything.

"When a move comes up, then if it needs to happen, it will happen. At the times that I have been linked with the club before, it did not happen, but it is what it is."

Now he is finally in the building, alongside a Rashford fighting to rewrite his own story, United must decide how much trust – and how many minutes – they are willing to invest in both.