Marcus Rashford has reiterated his desire to join Barcelona and has made it clear to the Catalan club that he is willing to accept a significant cut on his Manchester United salary in order to secure a move this summer, according to reports in Spain.
Rashford spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa after being frozen out of United’s first team by Ruben Amorim last winter.
Villa have the option to sign Rashford for £40 million but the 27-year-old’s preference is to join Barcelona.
Last month, Rashford’s brother and agent travelled to Barcelona for talks with the Spanish champions over a potential deal.
But while Barcelona are looking to strengthen Hansi Flick’s attacking options ahead of the new season, Rashford is not their first-choice target with Liverpool’s Luis Diaz and Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams both preferred.
Get personalised updates on Manchester United every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link so we can send you football news tailored to you.
It’s understood that Barcelona’s sporting director, Deco, travelled to Ibiza on Wednesday to meet Williams on his holiday after holding talks with the winger’s agent last Friday.
Williams, who has a €58 million (£48.1m) release clause in his deal with Bilbao, is said to be open to joining Barcelona.
According to Marca, Rashford is still pushing for a move to Barcelona and is ‘willing to make every effort and sacrifice within his power’ to make the move happen.
That includes taking a significant cut on the £350,000-a-week salary he is earning at United.
Barca’s preference would be to sign Rashford on loan with an option to buy but United are holding out for a permanent transfer in order to help fund Amorim’s squad rebuild.
Meanwhile, Barca have been warned that they will need to sell players in order to register Williams for the upcoming season due to their financial difficulty.
‘They don’t yet meet the requirements to sign freely, they can’t sign yet under the 1:1 rule,’ La Liga president, Javier Tebas, said on Tuesday.
‘If they want Nico, they will have to sell and adjust their accounts a lot.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
