Barcelona have offered the clearest account yet of why they walked away from a permanent deal for Marcus Rashford and spent heavily on Anthony Gordon instead, with sporting director Deco saying the England winger simply fitted Hansi Flick’s system better than the Manchester United forward who had spent the previous season on loan at the club.
Deco set out the reasoning in an interview with the Catalan radio station RAC1, published this week. He was gracious about Rashford’s contribution but firm on the football logic. “We are extremely grateful to Rashford,” he said. “He contributed a lot last season, but our idea of play is much more linked to Anthony. His style fits with what the coach is looking for.” The director pointed to a specific weakness Barcelona had identified over the campaign, namely a drop in the team’s intensity whenever the Brazilian forward Raphinha was absent. Gordon, in his assessment, was the profile best suited to solving that problem.
The decision is notable because Rashford, by most measures, had a strong loan spell. He joined Barcelona from United for the 2025/26 season after falling out of favour at Old Trafford, and helped the club to the LaLiga title. Accounts of the rest of his honours and output vary by source, which is worth flagging: some tallies credit him with 14 goals in all competitions, others add assists ranging from 10 to 15, and the second trophy is described variously as the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de Espana. What is not disputed is that his form was good enough for many to expect Barcelona to keep him.
They chose not to. Barcelona held an option to sign Rashford permanently, reported at around €30m, roughly £26m at prevailing rates, and declined to trigger it. The 28 year old has since returned to Manchester United, where manager Michael Carrick has had to reintegrate him into the squad despite both the player and the club having preferred a move.
In his place, Barcelona moved for Gordon, and the fee illustrates how much more they were willing to commit for a player who matched Flick’s requirements. When the agreement was first reported in late May, ESPN put the figure at €70m, about $81.4m, plus potential add ons. On completion, Sky Sports News reported the total at £69.3m, or €80m inclusive of add ons, on a five year contract running to 2031. The gap between the base and total figures reflects performance related extras rather than a change in the deal. Either way, the outlay dwarfs the option Barcelona passed up for Rashford, and it made Gordon one of their two most expensive signings of the window alongside the Manchester City midfielder Rodri.
Gordon, 25, arrived from Newcastle United, who had signed him from Everton in January 2023 for a fee reported at up to £45m. His final season on Tyneside was productive, with 17 goals across all competitions by Sky Sports’ count, and he had also drawn interest from Bayern Munich before Barcelona won the race. Deco was candid that recruiting from the Premier League is rarely straightforward. “Signing someone from the Premier League is almost impossible,” he said, “but [Flick] was clear with what he wanted and we worked on a deal from there.” He added that the club had assessed a number of wingers before settling on the England international.
Early evidence suggests the fit Deco described is showing on the pitch. Gordon has contributed four assists in his first four LaLiga appearances, an encouraging start for a player brought in specifically to raise the team’s energy in wide areas.
The move should also be read against Barcelona’s wider financial position, which has shaped their recruitment for several seasons. The club’s need to manage spending under LaLiga’s financial controls was part of why Rashford arrived on a low cost loan in the first place, and why the eventual decision to spend €80m on Gordon rather than a smaller sum on Rashford signals a clear prioritisation. Deco himself had earlier described the Rashford question as tied to financial fair play, squad priorities, performance and the coach’s call, factors he said meant a permanent deal was not the right step at that time.
For United, the outcome is a mixed one. Offloading Rashford’s wages had been a stated aim, and the collapse of the Barcelona option leaves the club managing a high earner it had hoped to move on. For Barcelona, the calculation is straightforward on Deco’s telling: a player whose game mirrors the way Flick wants to play, secured on a long contract, was worth a premium over a proven but less tactically aligned alternative.
Whether the judgement proves correct will play out over the season. Gordon’s early assist numbers are promising, but the true test is whether Barcelona retain their intensity in the matches where Raphinha is unavailable, which was the precise gap Deco said the signing was meant to close.