Why would FC Barcelona want to extend Marcus Rashford’s loan?

Extending Rashford’s loan makes sense from a financial perspective. At present, Barca have intentions to sign Alessandro Bastoni, who will cost €50-60 million, while Julian Alvarez is a €200 million pipe dream that Atletico Madrid will be reluctant to let go.

For a club still recovering from the economic crisis that almost blew it to oblivion after the pandemic, €30 million is still a considerable sum that can’t be parted with lightly.

By saving it and only paying Rashford’s wages, Barca can pursue other avenues and maybe even shell out less for him a year from now if United accept.

On the sporting side of things, Rashford has dropped off a little since his roaring start to life in Catalonia.

It’s felt that he didn’t take advantage of opportunities afforded to him when Raphinha became injured, and missing a number of easy chances against Atletico Madrid in the 2-0 Champions League quarterfinal defeat at Camp Nou could have played its part in the KO.

At the same time, however, Rashford’s return of 13 goals and 13 assists isn’t to be sniffed at - especially for someone experiencing their first season in Spain at one of the world’s biggest clubs.

Rashford has scored important goals for Barca such as the equaliser in a 2-1 league win against Atletico Madrid.

There’s also his impact as a substitute, no better seen than on Saturday when he doubled the lead in Getafe and helped secure a first win there since September 2019.

This season, only Bayern Munich (18) have had supersubs score more goals than Barca (17), and only Robert Lewandowski (6) has netted more than Rashford (4) in that respect.

Surely that alone is worth a second look in a low-risk, high reward scenario.