Marcus Rashford got another couple of goals and an assist for Barcelona on Tuesday, and for some that serves as proof he was “lazy” at Manchester United.

We typically air the views of former Red Devils full-back Paul Parker because their bizarre, controversial nature offers at worst the opportunity for a smile or a chuckle of a weekday.

Those that are too bonkers for publication we typically ignore and brush off as the witterings of someone who might ordinarily scrawl their opinions on a toilet cubicle door.

READ MORE: Marcus Rashford redemption story continues with another Champions League brace as Man Utd watch on

But we couldn’t help but be provoked by his latest views on Rashford, whom he’s never been shy in giving his two pennies’ worth on.

“He let his team-mates down. He was lazy, he didn’t do anything. He’s got a lot to prove if he comes back to England. How many players in the UK would trust him if he played for their team? We know it, the answer is no-one. They would never say it, but they would be feeling it inside. It was life and death when I played, and that should have been inbuilt in him, but it isn’t.”

Rashford can’t win. Either he doesn’t do well for Barcelona to prove he was never all that anyway. Or he does do well and that apparently shows just how “lazy” he must have been for United. And what about this?assertion that “no-one would trust him”.

That certainly didn’t seem to be the case at Aston Villa in the second half of last season, or indeed for England now. We would actually suggest that the Rashford currently slamming in goals and notching assists for Barcelona is the sort of of guy most “players in the UK” would turn to in order to get them out of a bind.

As is the case with Roy Keane, Gary Neville and other former Manchester United players, Parker is struggling to come to terms with his former club being the problem, rather than Rashford and the many other players who have moved on and are thriving elsewhere. Not that he is?actually?thriving…

“He has done alright, but I don’t think he is in Barcelona’s ideal starting 11. Will he start in a Champions League final with Yamal, Raphinha and Lewandowski? I think the answer is no. He doesn’t start. Everything about Marcus Rashford seems to be about politics, to be honest.”

Using the guys who came second and fifth in the Ballon d’Or and arguably the greatest goalscorer of his generation as the yardstick to show Rashford isn’t actually doing that well shows just how few straws Parker has to grasp in that particular argument. And what’s that “politics” bit about? Still annoyed about feeding starving children? He’s got four goals and two assists in three Champions League games by ‘focusing on his football’.

?“Rashford put himself in a bad position where he didn’t know what to do. If you can’t give everything for your boyhood club and you are willing to let down the rest of the team, then that says a lot about you. If you can’t do it at the club you have been at since you were a kid, even saying you support that team and love the city where you have been brought up. If you can’t deliver for them and let your teammates down on numerous occasions, then you are in a very bad position.”

It’s a “bad position” which now sees him playing and enjoying his football at one of the most famous and best clubs in Europe. He’s probably alright.

“Then he went to Aston Villa and the media claimed he did well, but did he do better than Ollie Watkins? No. Did he do any better than Jacob Ramsey? No. But he was sold that way because the narrative was to put pressure on Man Utd.”

We don’t think comparing Rashford with other very good footballers is making quite the point that Parker is aiming at, and Unai Emery often selected him ahead of Watkins. In both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain, for example.

Here’s to Rashford rattling in a hat-trick for Barcelona in his first El Classico on Sunday and Parker again being asked for his thoughts on his dramatic resurgence. He’ll find some new stick to beat him with, and if not, his brilliance for his new club will only strengthen his claim that Rashford was “lazy” at Manchester United.