Harry Maguire has opened up on his failed summer transfer to West Ham as he expressed confidence over breaking into the Manchester United team.
The oft-maligned England stalwart was widely expected to depart Old Trafford after four years during the summer window, having found regular starts hard to come by last season and been stripped of the captaincy by manager Erik ten Hag, who instead handed the armband to Bruno Fernandes.
West Ham were most keen on a deal for Maguire, seeing both loan and permanent bids rejected by United before finally agreeing a fee worth around £30million.
The move was never completed however, with reports that the centre-back could not agree terms with United on a suitable pay-off.
It was claimed that Maguire wanted around £7m to leave the club, having faced the prospect of a significant salary reduction at West Ham following United’s return to the Champions League.
He has since made just one appearance for United as a second-half replacement for the injured Lisandro Martinez in the dramatic late 3-1 loss at Arsenal prior to the international break, with Victor Lindelof’s subsequent withdrawal through illness and the absences of the likes of Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw meaning that Ten Hag had to end that game with Maguire and Jonny Evans - effectively his fourth and fifth-choice centre-back options - in defence.
Despite that continued lack of regular first-team football however, Maguire was again selected for England duty and started the 1-1 Euro 2024 qualifying draw with Ukraine in Poland before scoring an unfortunate own goal as a half-time substitute in the 3-1 friendly win over Scotland at Hampden Park, where he was again sarcastically mocked by opposition supporters - leading to an impassioned defence by Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate, who strongly criticised the ongoing treatment of the player by fans and the media as “ridiculous”, an “absolute joke” and “beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”
Maguire has since insisted that he can deal with the boo boys as he also offered an insight into why he did not leave United over the summer.
“We just didn’t come to an agreement [to leave the club] and they were happy for me to stay and I was happy to fight for my place,” he said.
Maguire also seemed confident that he would now get a sustained run of first-team games at injury-hit United, who have Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup commitments all on the agenda over the coming weeks.
“Listen, at club football, I want to play games, I want to play football,” he said. “The first four weeks were hard because it was one game a week and the manager didn’t select me but we have lots of games coming up now and I am sure I will play lots of games.”
