Maguire could be the difference between us and CL football. Between signing Demarai Gray and Jadon Sancho. Between keeping Pogba for another season or losing him for 60m to Madrid on the last day of next summer.
80m would be a bargain.
Agree with every sentence.
I think many of you underestimate the importance of buying a local British lad. His profile fits our needs almost 100%, he’s part of the NT and his proven on almost every level. What more can we ask for?
Regarding other options they also comes with pros and cons. The foreign guys often needs time to adapt to culture and language. That’s a big part how fast a player can step up to expected level. Also not every talent is suited to play with a big club like United, we only have to go back to Lindelöf’s first season to be remembered about initial difficulties with coming to a new club with hefty expectations.
When all this is taking into account then we can properly judge the reported fee.
If Maguire can slot in as a starter and almost directly perform to expected level then this is worth many many millions. For example let’s say we buy KK from Italy and he needs half a season do adapt, then maybe that’s enough for us to be outside the top four race when we come to spring. Same with the de Ligt or any other young talent who where on our shopping list. Everything must be taking into account when deciding what’s a safe buy or not.
In my world Harry Maguire represents the most optimal buy we can do if we compare risk and reward. 60+20 or whatever we end up paying is good value if we compare to the other options.