Marcus Rashford’s Rise Highlights Chelsea’s Failures with Dominic Solanke

The contrasts between Dominic Solanke and Marcus Rashford couldn’t be any more striking.

Both are being billed as the future of English football on the back of their goalscoring exploits. Whereas Solanke has been a youth-team star for Chelsea, however, it’s where it matters most that Rashford is making his name.

The Manchester United striker scored on his debut for the club in last season’s Europa League and hasn’t looked back since. He followed up his brace against Danish side Midtjylland in February with another double just three days later against Arsenal in a 3-2 win.

A further four goals followed, including the game’s only tally as United toppled rivals Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. Within seconds of making his England debut in late May, Rashford scored against Australia to book his place in Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2016 squad.

On Wednesday, a hat-trick on his England under-21s debut sent his reputation into the stratosphere.

📸 Not a bad way to mark your #Eng U21 Debut!Hat-Trick ⚽️⚽️⚽️ ✔️MOTM 🍾 ✔️#GetIN pic.twitter.com/R9qHIs51mN

— Vauxhall England (@VauxhallEngland) September 6, 2016

All the while, Solanke is becoming known for things away from the pitch. Despite scoring a combined 61 goals for Chelsea’s youth teams from 2013 to 2015—Rashford’s record in the same period is 17, less than a third of Solanke’s—the 18-year-old is making headlines for apparent wage demands as he seeks a new contract at Stamford Bridge.

According to reports in the Sun in May, Chelsea were planning to exile the youngster until he lowered those expectations. The plan was apparently to block any loan moves for Solanke, who is in the last year of his contract, and make him spend that time in the development teams at Stamford Bridge.

The transfer deadline has since closed for this season, and with Solanke still in west London, it seems Chelsea have followed through on that threat. Of the 38 Chelsea players on loan, Solanke’s name not being among them is a shock.

He is supposed to be one of the club’s brightest young talents, but all Chelsea fans have seen of him in first-team colours was a brief substitute appearance before a loan move to Vitesse Arnhem last season. New boss Antonio Conte featured Solanke as an unused sub in the recent EFL Cup tie with Bristol Rovers, but we shouldn’t be expecting to see him much more.

Solanke isn’t officially listed as …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com