Was definitely an upgrade to our team. I think the £80m will always be held against him. He's not worth that amount of money and everyone knew it at the time, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet instead of gambling on £25-30m players like Lindelof, Rojo and Bailly which may work out but also may not. We couldn't have another year of an unsettled defence with no leadership or no guarantee of delivering from the off. I'm sure the club knew this hence the long negotiations and in the end, thought despite the price he is the best option plus the likes of Lindelof and Bailly would have been £40m purchases in the summer just gone rather than the previous £30m.
I'm not saying you can't sign good CB's or upgrades for £10-£40m, but you also have the risk of them not settling or not being as good as initially thought. Everyone knew what we were getting with Maguire. Someone who knows the league, is a mainstay in teams, good in the air, leader at the back, an upgrade on what we currently had and a good defender.