Gary Neville once claimed Harry Maguire was "irreplaceable" to Manchester United but Erik ten Hag has quickly proved that isn't the case just months into his reign as manager.
The Dutchman took charge in the summer and has wasted little time in slowly ousting Maguire from the fold and finding a central defensive pairing he feels more comfortable with in Raphael Varane and summer signing Lisandro Martinez. The duo were in fine form before Varane picked up an injury away at Chelsea last month.
Speaking in December of 2020 on his Sky Sports Podcast, Neville claimed: "Maguire, I think, you’d know if he was missing. My gut feeling is that they would miss him enormously.
"I know some people say he’s not the best defender in the league, that he’s not done brilliantly since he came for £80m, but he’s a big presence in the heart of the defence
He’s good on the ball, he’s composed and he’s good in the air. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, sometimes he gets caught but he’s a good centre-back, a really good centre-back and a big presence in that team."
Just shy of two years down the line and the landscape looks very different, with Maguire clearly surplus to requirements in the eyes of Ten Hag.
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Having missed some of the action through injury this term, Maguire was fit to start in United's last Premier League outing away at Aston Villa - yet the manager opted for a pairing of Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof.
The club captain was left on the bench for the entirety, before being handed a chance to start in the Carabao Cup against the same opposition just days later.
Maguire's presence in that League Cup clash was a damning indictment of how far his stock has fallen at Old Trafford, now a player whose best chance of minutes come in third round Carabao Cup games, hardly as "irreplaceable" as Neville thought.
According to The Guardian, Ten Hag has come to terms with the fact Maguire is not at the required level of the way he wants to play and is therefore ready to listen to offers for the England international.
However, given Maguire is currently paid £190,000 per week and is in the middle of a lengthy contract, he could prove incredibly difficult to shift. There is little hope United will be able to recoup anywhere near the £85million they forked out for the defender in 2019.
Whatever money they do make is likely to go on another central defender to offer some competition to starting duo Varane and Martinez for the second half of the season.
