Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara has urged Spurs to force the Marcus Rashford question onto the summer agenda, but the real issue for Roberto De Zerbi is not whether the forward still has elite tools. It is whether Tottenham can carry the wage risk without damaging the rebuild they have spent June trying to make more disciplined.
According to talkSPORT, O’Hara wants Spurs to “break the bank” on wages for Rashford, arguing that the Manchester United forward could be available for roughly GBP30 million and would give De Zerbi a direct, explosive attacker. The same report states Rashford returned 14 goals and 14 assists on loan at Barcelona last season, while his current United deal runs until 2028. ReadTottenham previously covered the wider Rashford release-clause picture, but this is now a sharper wage-structure debate.
That is why this cannot be dismissed as a nostalgia link. Rashford is no longer just a distressed asset. His England form at the World Cup has pushed him back into a higher-pressure conversation, and The Times has reported that Thomas Tuchel has seen signs of the forward growing into the bravery and directness demanded in his system.
The football case is obvious
Rashford gives Tottenham something De Zerbi has been trying to buy across several fronts: speed into space, end-product from the left, and a player who can attack the far post when the right side overloads. In a De Zerbi structure, the value of a wide forward is not only in touchline isolation. It is in choosing when to hold width, when to run beyond the centre-forward, and when to punish a pressed back line before it resets.
That profile matters because Spurs have already started their defensive work early. Sky Sports reported that Jan Paul van Hecke arrived for GBP52 million, with Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi also agreeing to join as part of a fast, De Zerbi-led rebuild. The next stage is not simply adding names. It is adding forwards who change the geometry of the team.
Rashford would do that immediately. His best football has always carried a vertical threat that makes full-backs retreat and centre-backs defend facing their own goal. For a Tottenham side trying to move away from stale possession and toward sharper attacking sequences, that is not a small detail.
The wage structure is the danger
The complication is financial hierarchy. Sky Sports has already reported that Spurs are willing to think ambitiously in midfield, including a contract worth more than GBP275,000 per week in their pursuit of Sandro Tonali. Adding Rashford on another major salary would make this a far broader dressing-room statement.
That is where O’Hara’s logic becomes seductive but incomplete. A GBP30 million transfer fee can look like value in a market where elite attackers are routinely priced above GBP60 million. The total package is different. Signing Rashford would mean committing to star-level wages, agent costs, and a tactical role prominent enough to justify both.
Tottenham cannot afford to build another squad where reputation outruns fit. De Zerbi needs intensity, repetition and tactical obedience as much as star power. Rashford can meet that brief if he arrives hungry and physically sharp. If he arrives as a marquee exception, the deal becomes harder to square with the reset being sold to supporters.
Why De Zerbi should keep the door open
The smartest Tottenham stance is not to chase the noise, but not to close the file either. Rashford at the right number, with performance-led incentives and a clear role on the left, would be a serious market opportunity. Rashford as a wage-busting statement would be a gamble that belongs to the previous Spurs cycle.
De Zerbi has been given influence precisely because Tottenham want conviction in recruitment. The Rashford question now tests whether that conviction can stay cold. The talent is real, the price may be workable, and the upside is obvious. The trap is pretending the headline fee tells the whole story.
If Spurs can control the contract, Rashford is exactly the type of attacker who could accelerate the rebuild. If they cannot, this is one expensive temptation they should admire from a distance.
