Rashford, Sancho and Greenwood were all set to be Man Utd’s front three for years… that dream is now dead

MARCUS RASHFORD, Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood.

It was the triumvirate that was going to fire Manchester United back to the Treble years.

A young, exciting, quick forward line with the potential to strike fear into teams at home and abroad — boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was convinced of it.

With an average age of just over 21, the three were not only ready for the challenges of being a Red Devil now but would grow and reach their peaks together.

That was the dream at the start of the 2021-22 season as Solskjaer finally landed Sancho for £73million from Borussia Dortmund after nearly two years of negotiations.

At the time, Ole said: “Jadon is a signing that we expect to stay at Man United for many, many years, so it’s also that part of it that we have a young, up-and-coming forward line.”

Fast forward and now one won’t play for United, one can’t and a third can’t remember how to.

How on earth did one of the world’s biggest clubs get into such a position? Well, the first thing that derailed it all was the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, just a few weeks after Sancho arrived.

At first it was to much fanfare as he scored twice in the 4-1 win over Newcastle on an incredible afternoon at Old Trafford back in September 2021.

Then it quickly became apparent CR7 was the square piece Solskjaer had to fit into a round hole and the whole jigsaw began to fall apart.

As the Norwegian admitted recently: “The right thing to do was to sign Cristiano but it would have been better for him and for us if he hadn’t signed.”

What his arrival did was curtail the progression of the three youngsters, all of whom were switched around to accommodate the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

The trio, rather than be inspired by the United legend, ended up retreating