Marcus Rashford could give Manchester United £26m boost as forgotten former player shines in Champions League

Manchester United might not be in the Champions League, or any European competition for that matter, but there was still plenty of interest for their supporters on Thursday night.

Scott McTominay and Rasmus Hojlund both returned to Manchester as Napoli were defeated 2-0 by Man City and Marcus Rashford grabbed the headlines as Barcelona secured an important 2-1 away win over Newcastle.

United have targeted a return to the Champions League at the end of the season, with a top-five finish the ambition for under-fire boss Ruben Amorim. It is estimated they could make a minimum of £100 million in revenue from participation in the competition, a further boost in a week when they announced record revenues for the previous year.

There could be further revenue if United manage to sell Hojlund or Rashford at the end of the campaign, with both players currently only on loan at their respective clubs. Barcelona have the option to buy Rashford for £26 million (€30 million) next summer, while Napoli will have an obligation to purchase Hojlund for £34.8m (€30m) if they qualify for the Champions League.

Hojlund had the unenviable task of leading the line for 10-man Napoli against City after captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo had been shown an early red card, while McTominay worked hard in central midfield without much reward. In fact, for all the talk of the former United duo, it was forgotten United man Vanja Milinkovic-Savic who shone the brightest with several important stops for the Serie A side.

The 28-year-old got down well to deny Rodri, Nico O’Reilly and Josko Gvardiol in the first half as Napoli somehow managed to go in level at the break. Milinkovic-Savic was signed by United for €1.75m in May 2014 but remained at Serbian club Vojvodina for another season on loan.

The plan had been for the Serbian to return to Manchester, but he was never granted a work permit and was subsequently released in November 2015 and signed a long-term contract with Lechia Gdańsk. He has since gone on to establish himself as one of the top goalkeepers in Italy after a lengthy spell with Torino, before he joined Napoli on an initial loan in the summer, evidence of the obvious talent United saw in him 11 years ago.

Rashford was the star of the night, though, bagging a brace as Barcelona defeated Newcastle at St. James’ Park. The 27-year-old opened the scoring with a bullet header inside the box and then doubled the lead with a sensational strike from the edge of the box that stunned the home crowd.

With a different manager in charge, he might well still have a future at Old Trafford, but his latest performance for Barcelona showed why the decision might be taken out of their hands if the Catalan club decides to pay £26m instead. On current from, they’d be silly not to.