Rashford's Barcelona Dream CRUSHED! Paul Parker Slams his Mentality

Welcome back to the Webby & O'Neill channel. We're in Hotel Football with the legend and ex-Manchester United player Paul Parker. First thing, I've got to get straight into you and it's all about Marcus Rashford. What do you make of it? I'm quite surprised by it because it was all about going to these exotic clubs, I call them, you know, your AC Milan with their history, these great players. And then we talk about Barcelona and, core, the opportunity to Manchester United and Barcelona and CV is just absolutely fantastic. But it hasn't worked out. He's ended up going, you know, what, an hour and 20 minutes down the M6 into Birmingham and to Aston Villa. And if he needs that to kind of get himself right, well, good luck to him. I find it very, very strange, Tony, to be perfectly honest. And people are out there talking about if he plays good football, is there a possibility, Paul, that he might come back to Manchester United? Well, first of all, there's a lot of people out there who want him to do well so they can first and foremost come back to the club and nail the club down. And what they've gone and done, they want to play the blame game. But you've got to look at the individual. And you have to say that he hasn't done enough to actually to warrant those kind of people being around and trying to look after him. He hasn't worked hard enough. And the one thing that is needed in any business, any industry, you have to work hard for yourself and for your team or the people you're playing with. He hasn't done that. Is he going to go and do it in Birmingham for Aston Villa? Well, for me, he's at a club which he's been with since he was a kid. He was born in Manchester. He's a Manchester United fan. If he can't do it for Manchester United, if I was to meet a Villa fan and ask him, I'm quite sure they'd be a little bit concerned. Is he going to go and do it for them if he's not willing to help his hometown club? Manchester United are asking for an option to buy him, Paul. You've mentioned the fans looking at what he does. Will they accept him? Will the players at Aston Villa accept him knowing that he basically downed tools? Ruben Amerin called him out for not doing the right work, the right work ethic inside Manchester United. You're the next footballer, Paul. You know, and everyone knows, he downed tools virtually. How will they react to him, Paul? Well, they're going to be sceptical, without a shadow of a doubt, and be worried about him, the players, and what he's gone and done. Because even if he does come out and he goes out there and he has these incredible performances and he's working as hard as he's ever worked in his life, then those people around are going to go, well, why are you doing this now and not then? It doesn't matter if you've got a problem with a manager. What you don't go and do is let your teammates down. And he's going to let his teammates down to go out there and stroll about in training. Now, if he was to stroll about in training and for 90 minutes, midweek and weekends, give incredible performances, we wouldn't be here talking about him. Because I think a manager will go, OK, yeah, we get that. He's doing the fitness work. He's prepared to play Saturday. And when he plays, he's playing incredibly and he gives everything. They're willing to forget about those bits in training. But when he's not doing it in training and then we see him in games and he's walking about and then he has a shot or he tries to do something, it doesn't come off and he doesn't try to win the ball back. That's when, as a player, you question your teammate when he's not doing that for you. And I've been in dressing rooms when I've seen players call another player out. Let me tell you, if a player was to ever call me a cheat, that would hurt me a lot more than a manager calling me. Because I know that once it gets to the players, you're in serious trouble wherever you go. Is that where you think he's at, the level? He's been cheating everyone, Paul? Well, the biggest crime of all, I think, really, is he's been cheating himself. Because there's an ability there. There is ability and that's the biggest crime of all. In football, if you don't allow your own ability to come through because you've been lazy, you haven't been bothered to try, you think it's going to happen and just get on with it. He's cheated himself and he's now, to get anywhere near back to what he had, I'm going to say two and a half years ago, where there was consistency in his game, it's going to be very difficult because acceptance is going to be very, very hard for him. Unai Emery, excellent coach, excellent manager. Is this the right manager for him to guide him through? He's a strong character, Unai Emery. Will it work, in your opinion, Paul? I think Emery might have just taken this on as a challenge. And if he succeeds, then his credentials are going to get big again. You're going to be saying better things about him if he manages to turn him around and keeps it going as well. Not just a one-off, because if you want to be at the top, it's not just a one-off, it's doing it consistently. If he can go and do that, then you say well played. But that means then there's something that has happened between him and Manchester United, if he can go down the road and go and sustain that consistency and performances. I'd be surprised if he does. If he does, I would turn around and say well done, but I'd be concerned about why he couldn't do it for Manchester United. His preference, by all reports, was Barcelona. If he does well, do you think Barcelona would come and get him? The club he wants to go to? I think there's a lot of players who love to go to Barcelona, but we all know Barcelona's not what they are anymore. We all know that Barcelona have got monetary problems. They can't register players at this moment in time. So if that dream is there, it's going to remain a dream for any player, let alone Marcus Rashford. First and foremost, and for me, he has to prove himself here. Don't go to another country and go over there and think it's going to go away. Whatever happens, your home is here and you have to get back to where you were, because people have seen it when he was doing it for club and country. Do you think when you talk about proving it here in the Premier League, a lot of people aren't happy that he's going to a Premier League club, you talk about proving it. Do you think when he talks about Barcelona, Monaco, Milan, these teams abroad that have been linked to him, do you think he was going away to hide? Do you think that's part of his makeup? Downing tools? Is that part of it? What do you think? Getting away from the pressure, doesn't want it, doesn't need it. You might be honest, that could be in his mindset, but to go to an AC Milan or go to a Barcelona, or even if we're talking about a Monaco, great places to be, great places to live. When I talk about AC Milan and Barcelona, they're not what they were. As you know, the clubs are what they were 10 years plus. But the one thing, they've still got those supporters there who still expect and still want the best. So he's going to have to go there and work even harder to prove himself. So he was putting himself more under the microscope if he had gone to those clubs. They would have been waiting there to go at him because he's not one of their own anyway. At Manchester United, he is seen as a Manchester boy, a Manchester United boy as well. So the fans stood for him, the majority stood for him for so long. And now everyone's got to a breaking point. Kool says people on his side, but he's got to it now where everyone's worried about the football because he was a man to take Manchester United further and he hasn't shown it. He hasn't shown enough that he wants to take Manchester further because he's not willing to have a work ethic and it doesn't matter in anything. If you're having a poor game, your work ethic is important. And I'll name you one player, one player, Manchester United player, which I know you agree with. When it weren't going right for him, the player who he was up against had the worst time of his life, Sparky. He made their lives a nightmare because when he was having a bad time, he just went, right, it's not working, my touch is poor, this is... And you had the worst time of your life. And I played against him numerous occasions when I was at QPR and he was horrible. It doesn't matter. You having a good time against him, he makes you uncomfortable. And then what he does at the end of it, you play fair, you play rough and you do it together, he'll shake your hand. I've got to thank you for coming in. I know you're busy in that, but my last question is this. You played for Manchester... Well, you played for Manchester United for five years. The last two years, injury hit. But the question is, Paul, was it your injuries what finished you at Manchester United or was Gary Neville just a better player than you and took your place? Oh, I can call that a leading question. I would say... I would... Will you turn around? And I'm perfectly... I'm just doing another book at the moment. I've come out there and said it. At the end of it, if I look at it, I didn't do enough when I was injured, while I was injured in my rehab, to earn the right to get back to play. Gary's come in. Gary's done an incredible job when he come in. He was under pressure. I could not blow my own trumpet because he was coming in for me. And he'd done it and he'd done really well. So when it comes to me with the boss and having a conversation about my next stage, my contract was up, he said, Paul, he goes, Gary's come in. He's done well. Gary's one of those people that he just needs everything right for him. He needs to know. And if I'm going to take him out now, I don't know where that's going to put Gary. And as well, Paul, if I... And if I allow sentiment to get involved in this situation, it could cost me my job. And that's what he said to me at the time. Interior, I was fuming, but it took me a lot of years to realise that what he said was right. And it wasn't about how well Gary done, it's the fact that just the way the boss was, how he delivered it, which really hurt me, by the way, Tobi. Yeah. And so when it come down to it, my injury mentally took a lot away from me. And Gary walks in. Gary's come into it, but he's done a great job. And his career stats tell you they've done a great job. Paul went about it long winded. I'll put it so quickly. I think what Paul was saying was he was better, his mind just went away. Thank you for joining us, Paul. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much.