Paul Merson has revealed that he personally called Harry Maguire to apologise for the disparaging comments he made about the Manchester United captain.
When Maguire joined United for a world-record fee for a defender in 2019, Merson branded the £80million figure "ridiculous". His comments from that time frequently trend on social media when Maguire endures a poor performance, with many agreeing with the criticism.
While Maguire's move to the Red Devils has been a disaster, Merson has still been left feeling conflicted - so much so that he decided to phone Maguire to apologise for how fierce his criticism about the move to Old Trafford was.
“I don’t want to be right on that - I’d rather be wrong. I want England to win the World Cup and Harry Maguire to get the winning goal. It was just my opinion. I rang up [ Leicester manager] Brendan Rodgers and said, ‘Can you get me Harry Maguire's number?’" Merson told The Telegraph.
"I didn't feel comfortable with myself. I needed to ring him and say, ‘I don’t agree with the £80m but I shouldn’t have said that and I'm sorry'. I went a little bit too far. He couldn't believe it. Probably thought it was a joke. I don't think he has had a fair crack. He’s struggling and he’s playing on the left when he's right-footed.”
While Merson has been proved right over Maguire's poor performances, he has been reminded of several missed points of punditry. He has hit out at those who stray too far over the line and defended his position to be able to criticise.
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“People still come up to me when I’ve already said 50 times how great Kevin De Bruyne is. I only said what I saw. I'm a Chelsea fan. I also saw Mo Salah at Chelsea. They didn't cut it. They come back and are two of the best players in the world. It's the right place at the right time," he added.
“I don’t like it when people go on there and say, ‘He’s clueless, sack him, he hasn't got a brain’. I’ve got good knowledge on football even if I get it wrong sometimes. Talk to me about politics, I’ve not got a clue.
"Football, I played all my life. Under the top managers. I know my football. I’ll sit with anybody over a table and talk football. I confidently stood on Sky the other day with Gary Neville, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Roy Keane.
“The hardest part is when you have to be critical of one of the best players who's ever played football. [Cristiano] Ronaldo was a 100-times better player than me and I’ve got to say Man United are not going to win anything with him in the team.”
Though he has been pushed out of United's team, Maguire is in line to feature for England in their upcoming Nations League games. The Three Lions travel to Italy on Friday before hosting Germany on Monday in their final two games before this winter's World Cup.
