Online Reporter
MARCUS Rashford’s dream-home build has been hit by delays which could cost him £15million.
The England football ace is investigating why the former golf course and clubhouse, which he bought in bought in 2020 for £2.25million, is nowhere near finished after five years.
The 63-acre site became overgrown as work ground to a halt amid a rumoured dispute over money. The Manchester United forward, currently on loan at Barcelona, has instructed his finance team to find out what has gone wrong and when it will be finished.
A source said: “Marcus has spent millions on it already but faces spending millions more. There was a dispute in the summer. Work has recently started again but there’s slow progress. It’s all about the money.
“Marcus fears the house isn’t ever going to be worth anywhere near what he’s put into it.
“But he’s between a rock and a hard place as he can’t just stop and leave it. He just wants to get it finished.”
Rashford wanted to make his forever home at the clubhouse and former nine-hole golf course, set in the Cheshire countryside.
Plans were drawn up for the clubhouse to be demolished and replaced with a stunning five-bedroom mansion complete with indoor swimming pool, gym, games room and chill-out area.
There would be a separate apartment in the grounds, with landscaped gardens, and welfare plans for bats, birds, hedgehogs and newts on the former green-belt site.
However the project has been hit by floods along with rising costs after the original plans changed.
The slow progress has also sparked concern among Rashford’s neighbours, who say weeds growing on the site are dangerous.
Roy Baker, 80, who owns a farm next to the property, said he was visited by a man “acting on behalf of Marcus Rashford and his family a few weeks ago”.
He told The Sun: “He said he deals with land disputes. “There’s a dispute about how much money they’ve paid out. He was asking us questions about the contractors. I told him what I knew and what I’d seen.
“He told me how much they had spent — it’s in the millions.”
The exterior of the home has been completed, with two underground floors.
But Mr Baker, who has lived there for 42 years, said it “has been built at the lowest point” — adding: “His house is right where it’s boggy.
“We have a cellar and up until 2014 it was dry as a bone but now we have a pump to keep the water out because the water table is so high. So you can imagine next door going two floors down. It’s non-stop pumping out.”
Rashford is understood to have been told that managing the land would cost £1million a year alone. — Sun
Mathew Masinge