Youri Tielemans on Marcus Rashford's Potential at Manchester United

Youri Tielemans is relishing his fresh start at Manchester United – and he thinks Marcus Rashford could light up Old Trafford if the club truly leans into his talent.

Rashford is back where it all began. After 18 turbulent months away, the academy product has returned to first-team training this week, rejoining a squad that moved on without him under former boss Ruben Amorim. His long-term future is still uncertain, his name still linked with exits, but for now he is back on the Carrington pitches, trying to reset his United story.

The 26-year-old spent last season on loan at Barcelona, who chose not to trigger a £26 million option to buy. Before that, he found refuge at Aston Villa in the second half of the 2024-25 campaign, landing in the Midlands at the height of his public fallout with Amorim and the storm that followed.

At Villa, Rashford and Tielemans shared a dressing room and a pressure cooker. Unrelenting scrutiny, constant headlines, questions over attitude and application. In that environment, Villa pushed all the way to the Champions League quarter-finals, where they fell to eventual winners PSG – and Tielemans says Rashford’s contribution cut through the noise.

“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.”

That last line is the key. Tielemans has seen, up close, what Rashford looks like when he strips away the drama and just plays. Now he wants to see that version unleashed at Old Trafford.

Rashford is not the only familiar presence easing Tielemans’ own transition into United life. The Belgian midfielder walks into a dressing room that already includes Harry Maguire and a coaching staff headed, in part, by an old Leicester City ally in Jonny Evans.

“I played with Harry for just a bit less than six months and it was great at the time,” he said. “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, simply pulling on a United shirt has been a long time coming. This summer’s move is the third chapter in a transfer story that twice stalled before finally reaching its conclusion.

“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 in the building. Rashford is back in training. Maguire and Evans are familiar anchors around him. United, a club wrestling with its identity in recent seasons, suddenly has a cluster of players who have already proved they can handle chaos together.

If Rashford gets the platform and Tielemans the rhythm, Old Trafford might finally see the version of both that other clubs have already enjoyed.