Marcus Rashford faces a defining Manchester United future under Michael Carrick

So said Marcus Rashford in reaction to a clip of Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville starting the season as they mean to go on on their Sky Sports podcast; a platform that has facilitated a controlling of the sporting narrative of the Premier League, and some might even argue governance of it, since the broadcaster decided to give equal billing to punditry and the events on the pitch.

Every game has become an individual event separate from and connected to the fabric of the season as a whole; the footsteps of an individual player can be analysed in laborious detail. Rashford is one of the prime examples. Carragher was dismissive of the need to discuss Rashford whilst also participating in it. He has history for behaving in such a way towards the United player, once suggesting he wasn’t worthy of the amount of speculation that surrounded him.