“We're trying to help Maguire up here. Give him a little bit of PR.”

[TsuWave]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

I wonder how people have have interpreted this quote here. Is it a Sky mandate/agenda to protect Maguire - and potentially English players by extension - or was it a one-off?

I always found the 180 turn Paul Merson did on Maguire quite weird. He pretty much called him a bum when we signed him - which was the right call - then turned around, apologised and became part of his defence team full time, making up ridiculous excuses, point fingers elsewhere and citing stuff like “he’s a good guy” or whatever.

Not that it’s shocking news that pundits have agendas, but to hear it said so explicitly. You’d hope they’d be reasonably impartial and state things as they are, but to say they were going out of their way to do PR work for Maguire is…wow. Even more so because it’s detrimental for United.

state of punditry is as bad as refereeing

 

[hasanejaz88]

I think that's reading to much into what Roy Keane said. While there is a bias for English players generally, I don't think Sky has an agenda to protect Maguire specifically.

 

[Loon]

Even now, some of the oppos at work talk about him in terms of his England/Euros performances. They cannot understand why he’s lost his way at United.

 

[Matt007a]

Maybe that was just Keanes take on it. He's the captain, it's our biggest rival and it's televised so I don't think him doing the interview should be unexpected. Maybe Keane just felt the interviewer was too nice to Maguire and felt like he was trying to support him.

I'm not sure he was pointing out any kind of media agenda. Not to say the media doesn't have such agendas because obviously they do.

 

[SirAnderson]

I think that's reading to much into what Roy Keane said.

This.

They simply did a feature piece on him. Like did for VVD for Liverpool. Other time they did a piece on Bruno.
Keane just highlighted that he was the focus and that it turned out he's performance made that highlight all the more bad.

 

[CraftySoAndSo]

I think that's reading to much into what Roy Keane said. While there is a bias for English players generally, I don't think Sky has an agenda to protect Katie specifically.

Who's Katie?

 

[Berbasbullet]

Not everything is a conspiracy.

 

[hasanejaz88]

Who's Katie?

Auto correct error

 

[Zoo]

Keane has been very disparaging about him and sometimes it’s been over the top. He’s not wrong with what he says now but his focus is always on individual players when it’s clear that everything is a mess at the club.

 

[TsuWave]

Not everything is a conspiracy.

thus asking how did people interpret it. their pundits are certainly harsher on other individuals

 

[Lentwood]

Great, another thread about Maguire. Is that now 5 different threads we have open just to bash Maguire?

 

[SER19]

Their treatment of rashford is embarrassing. Tyler last night saying he 'needs a run of games' and 'still full of running' after delivering one of the worst centre forward performances in United's history

Hes had a run of games! Hes just rubbish and his attitude is awful

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

I think it's just the fact he's getting hammered every week and it's starts to come across as bullying / mental health thing.

But alas, calling his shite performances out is fair game. Manager should drop him.

 

[horsechoker]

Remember when Rooney was given a free pass despite being past his best?

 

[TsuWave]

Great, another thread about Maguire. Is that now 5 different threads we have open just to bash Maguire?

need 50 more to be honest

 

[Giggsy13]

Great, another thread about Maguire. Is that now 5 different threads we have open just to bash Maguire?

MORE!

 

[LARulz]

He is the captain - of course they are interviewing him before a big game

 

[Relevated]

He meant that they're going easy on Maguire so that his confidence isn't shot down, not that he's being overly protected because of his nationality.

 

[Mainoldo]

I interpreted It as his face was at the front of the sky desk and when he get boo’d the whole county comes out to defend him. So much it gets a home crowd to back him. If they can do that why don’t you think they’ll try to get you lot to back him with PR probs. I.e. have him at the forefront of advertisement. Think about it out of all the players to choose you pick Maguire.

Leave it out this club is trying to protect their asset value. The culture needs to change.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Auto correct error

We used to have Mike Smalling, now we've got Katie Maguire.

That's how far we've fallen.

 

[lsd]

The look he gave to the presenter when he said that would suggest that they were told beforehand to be nice to Maguire and not criticise him.

I don't think there can be any doubt about that

 

[Abraxas]

A complete misread of the situation in my opinion. I think Keane was just grasping for the right wording when he used the phrase PR. I believe his point was simply around bringing a bit of balance to the discussion given the widespread stick Maguire is taking. It didn't seem to me that he was referencing some kind of plot. Why would that be blurted out on air if it did exist, and why would Keane then go to town on Maguire post-game if there was a mandate in place?

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Even now, some of the oppos at work talk about him in terms of his England/Euros performances. They cannot understand why he’s lost his way at United.

the whole team has been terrible, under ole this season and again under ralf. he has been great before that. he probably is a system player in a funny way, because if the system is bad he will look worse than anyone else, because of his pace issue. but in peps team he would prob be incredible, and hopefully under ETH that will be the case. Blind is incredibly slow and finds a place in ETHs team as a left back that actually plays centre back, I think harry will be fine next season. he is out best defender on the ball by a mile, although people wont like me saying that cos they saw a tiktok where he had nobody to pass to for 50 seconds and ended up knocking the ball out of play

 

[rimaldo]

it’s only natural that they’ll look to protect their source within the camp.

 

[pacifictheme]

Even now, some of the oppos at work talk about him in terms of his England/Euros performances. They cannot understand why he’s lost his way at United.

Can anyone? His form has completely nose dived but he was great for England at the euros and was good for us last season too.

 

[LoneStar]

Remember when Rooney was given a free pass despite being past his best?

I mean, you can at least understand that because a lot of the pundits would have played with him, and he was a world class player in his prime. So there might be some bias. Harry Maguire has not done anything remotely close to that.