Rio Ferdinand has urged Manchester United to consider breaking their wage structure to ensure that in-form attacker Marcus Rashford stays put at Old Trafford.
Having triggered a one-year option in his current deal, United remain in talks with Rashford over an improved agreement. He's expected to receive an increase on his £200,000 per-week salary, but the club are reluctant to pay any player more than £300,000 per-week to ensure parity among their top earners.
Casemiro earns £300,000 per-week and David de Gea was on £375,000 per-week before a 25 per cent pay cut came into force when United failed to qualify for the Champions League last season. Rashford has 18 months to run on his contract amid long-standing interest from Paris Saint-Germain.
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Discussions between the relevant parties remain ongoing, while Rashford has been in blistering form with 18 goals from his 30 appearances in all competitions this campaign. He also netted three goals in five matches at the World Cup for England to underline his improvement.
Speaking about Rashford on his FIVE podcast, Ferdinand said: "Do we break the pay structure to keep Marcus Rashford? They were talking about it [pay structure] in the media and I don't know how true it is.
"He's young and he's a local boy. Players who grow up at their clubs, they are almost treated like second-class citizens by the hierarchy in terms of contracts, they're never on the biggest contracts, because there is always someone being bought who's there to elevate."
Ferdinand added: "It would be a good opportunity to say; 'No, this is the benchmark. This is a local boy and no one can go beyond him. He's the one'.
"If they could reverse that [pay structure], it shows a really good, strong pathway from young kids to the first team that they are going to get looked after if they stay here, if they are loyal you will get treated in the right way, it might be a good opportunity to put a flag in the sand and say this is the way that we roll now."
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