How do we sell Harry Maguire?

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Roux

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This...his mind is totally shot. He needs a smaller club to get his confidence back up. He's not been nearly as much of a disaster as many have made him on here for us historically. I think his first few seasons he was quite good for us IMHO. This year he's been practically unplayable.

When a CB loses confidence you start seeing the clumsy tackling and positioning issues that his game is riddled with right now. I have no idea if he can overcome them at this point, but I have a feeling he won't be able to with the scrutiny that comes with playing for United and England. I wouldn't be surprised if Southgate has to drop him for the WC...sad but fair.
I don't believe its his mental state, rather its his limitations as a player. He had a clean summer break to get prepared for the season and got murdered by Welbeck and Toney.

Any decent manager would target and exploit his weaknesses.
 

Valencia Shin Crosses

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I just don't know what people expect, every player at a top club with a huge fanbase has to deal with that pressure. And when you are the captain of said club, brought in with a big fee and spoken about like a world class defender, people expect you to help change a side. Not embody a culture of failure while not holding any sort of accountability yourself. There's also something to be said for a build up of frustration from supporters when it feels like certain players are treated differently in terms of playing time than others. Maguire until ETH was basically undroppable, but never in a million years put up the performances to back up that status. That's always going to rub supporters the wrong way, as we naturally want to see a meritocracy with regards to our club where the best performers are rewarded and the slagging ones are benched until winning their spot back.

This all reaching a breaking point last year when we were getting constantly embarrassed and HM was at the heart of an entire montage of Sunday league errors. People before then were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because he had some decent spells and always stayed fit, but even then we were having to discuss "the best partner" for Maguire.
 

Andycoleno9

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Why only English players? What about Van De Beek?
Are we again in 2019? When everybody who had guts to say that James, AWB and Maguire are awful signings were labelled as Anti-British brigade.
Our biggest problem at this moment are 2 players; Maguire and Awb who are shit, not fit for ETH system and we can't sell them for even 20% of what we paid them.
Ronaldo is 3rd problem but his contract ends next summer at least.
 

Someone

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This...his mind is totally shot. He needs a smaller club to get his confidence back up. He's not been nearly as much of a disaster as many have made him on here for us historically. I think his first few seasons he was quite good for us IMHO. This year he's been practically unplayable.

When a CB loses confidence you start seeing the clumsy tackling and positioning issues that his game is riddled with right now. I have no idea if he can overcome them at this point, but I have a feeling he won't be able to with the scrutiny that comes with playing for United and England. I wouldn't be surprised if Southgate has to drop him for the WC...sad but fair.
That's why not everyone can handle playing for a big club. He's the captain of a struggling big club where the pressure is intense, but he has neither the leadership or the mental strength to handle that, so he just crumbled. He's definitely capable of doing a good job for a midtable club, hell he can even do it at a big club but not now, he needs to come into a successful environment be it at United or somewhere else, but not now, and certainly playing at the WC won't help his cause because one mistake like yesterday and he's the butt of jokes again.
 

caid

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I dont get why hes such a target of derision. England fans booing him just seems kind of bizarre, he's been pretty good for England for most of his international career and while i'm not an expert I dont see much competition. His confidence is clearly rock bottom, you'd think they'd try to get behind him and build him back up.
I dont even see the point from a United fan pov after watching him and every other player be pretty shit for a seasons worth of games and having limited patience left for them. He could and should be a good option for us. Why kick him when hes down?
 

Rightnr

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Part of why Maguire gets so much stick is the same as it was at United. There are clearly much better players who are not playing because Southgate is in love with the guy.

Tomori and Stones should be nailed on to start for England and you go from there. Maguire should be a squad option, same as at United.

He should also pipe down and focus on not assisting the other team every other game.
 

Marwood

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So am i - Fernandes was a huge signing, one of our biggest fees ever before the recent signings. He was the start of something, not the final puzzle and the exact player we needed at the time even though the team wasn't performing - he took United to a new level.

KDB example - because a player of that quality can take you from 6th to 2nd - just like Bruno did. That's why you pay huge fees - to improve the team.

Van Dyke didn't complete Liverpool - Allison did.

Rio was doing just fine for a 23yo - in fact he was excelling for his age, played regularly and won the league. He was also a bedrock for the England team well before joining United.

Your logic doesn't make any sense or have any proven track record in history. Big signings can be made before or after a rebuild - but usually you make them before so you can build around them - Pogba was another example. So was your own example of Rio - the defence was completed AFTER he joined. If I'm building a car - I'd start with the engine first and build around it right - wouldn't you?
Another level? We've just had our worst season in decades with Bruno in the team. After a short term boost we haven't gone up a level at all .Now imagine he was a world record fee for a midfielder(my entire point here) instead of the middling fee he was. It would have been a waste of money.

Football is a team sport. Spunking massive fees on players to then put them in an average team is pointless. There are numerous examples.
 

Marwood

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That's a terrible, terrible strategy. Players like De Bruyne are seldom available - when there's one available, you sign him.
Yeah you can. Will make bugger all difference if you drop them in a bad team though. Just another massive amount of money wasted.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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I'm talking about huge money signings.

What would be the point in say signing De Bruyne for a world record fee then sticking him in a team that's hovering around 6th?

It's not the way to build. You'll never get value out of that player because no matter how good they are, it is a team sport. They need a functioning team around them to warrant thst fee.

This isn't me defending Maguire. I think his time is up.

Rio was not living upto his fee until the team around him became the real deal.

You get your team sorted first then spend big on that extra special talent.

See Liverpool and van Dyke.
Rio won the league in his first season and we were top of the league when he got banned the next season, then he spent the season after playing with Silvestre and a young Wes Brown, with Kleberson and Djemba brothers in front of him, before Vidic came in.

His 'struggle' is massively overstated. If Maguire 'struggles' like that we would be creaming our pants.
 

Tallis

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Juventus seems like the perfect solution. He will be quite pacey over there
 

Roux

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Another level? We've just had our worst season in decades with Bruno in the team. After a short term boost we haven't gone up a level at all .Now imagine he was a world record fee for a midfielder(my entire point here) instead of the middling fee he was. It would have been a waste of money.

Football is a team sport. Spunking massive fees on players to then put them in an average team is pointless. There are numerous examples.
We finished second when he joined - his stats were unreal, best in the league - our top scorer. So yes paying that money for him made a difference.

Your last sentence is your opinion, it's not fact or based on any sort of reality or history. Your example of Rio Ferdinand was contradictory because he came before the other players.
 

Drakul

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We finished second when he joined - his stats were unreal, best in the league - our top scorer. So yes paying that money for him made a difference.

Your last sentence is your opinion, it's not fact or based on any sort of reality or history. Your example of Rio Ferdinand was contradictory because he came before the other players.
Why do people keep harping about that 2nd place finish? We only got 74 points in a season marred by COVID where we received a record-breaking number of penalties via VAR with no crowds. It was a singular season. It showed that most of our players are bottlers who shit the bed the moment the crowds returned and couldn't handle the pressure. Also, we are on the longest run in half a century without a trophy. This squad should have been ripped apart yet most of the dross is still here.
 

lex talionis

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I’m in the “mental state” camp with respect to Maguire. He actually performed very well for the club early on, but he seemed to have fallen apart, at least for United, after his incident in Greece. He’s had long enough to recover but he hasn’t. Let’s see where things are by the end of the season, but we may need to send him to West Ham or some other club that is reasonably successful but does not operate under the intense pressure of expectations of Manchester United.
 

Devil81

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The level drop whenever he's come into the team this season has been dramatic. He's slow, clumsy and awful under pressure.

He's basically been found out and he can't deal with the modern high press most teams adopt now.

I think he needs a move just as much as we need rid, that being said I don't see anyone paying close to the fee we paid for him so it could be a case of loaning him out in the hope he regains some sort of form.
 

Roux

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Why do people keep harping about that 2nd place finish? We only got 74 points in a season marred by COVID where we received a record-breaking number of penalties via VAR with no crowds. It was a singular season. It showed that most of our players are bottlers who shit the bed the moment the crowds returned and couldn't handle the pressure. Also, we are on the longest run in half a century without a trophy. This squad should have been ripped apart yet most of the dross is still here.
oh god, give it a rest. Would you have rather 6th/7th then? 2nd best team in the league whatever the context is still a good finish.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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I’m in the “mental state” camp with respect to Maguire. He actually performed very well for the club early on, but he seemed to have fallen apart, at least for United, after his incident in Greece. He’s had long enough to recover but he hasn’t. Let’s see where things are by the end of the season, but we may need to send him to West Ham or some other club that is reasonably successful but does not operate under the intense pressure of expectations of Manchester United.
I can point to multiple instances prior to Greece during Project Restart where Maguire was culpable for us conceding goals. Bournemouth [H], Southampton [H], Tottenham [A].

Has he play far better than he has been now? Of course but the Greece incident is further proof there’s a narrative surrounding Maguire that doesn’t match the actuality.
 

afatzp

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we have missed the ship to sell him at decent price , which was the 2022 summer window with Chelsea . Chelsea blended all four necessary elements of selling Maguire:

1. Desperately need a new CB to replace the departures
2. A England club (no foreign clubs would pay the premium of English player)
3. A owner / Sporting director who yet knows the trade but making the decision
4. A top club that Maguire made believe he belongs to and willing to move to
 

little.triangles

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we have missed the ship to sell him at decent price , which was the 2022 summer window with Chelsea . Chelsea blended all four necessary elements of selling Maguire:

1. Desperately need a new CB to replace the departures
2. A England club (no foreign clubs would pay the premium of English player)
3. A owner / Sporting director who yet knows the trade but making the decision
4. A top club that Maguire made believe he belongs to and willing to move to
They might yet get him to replace Silva.

C'mon, Boehly, you know you want to. We'll throw in Ronaldo in the package too.
 

MadDogg

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I’m in the “mental state” camp with respect to Maguire. He actually performed very well for the club early on, but he seemed to have fallen apart, at least for United, after his incident in Greece. He’s had long enough to recover but he hasn’t. Let’s see where things are by the end of the season, but we may need to send him to West Ham or some other club that is reasonably successful but does not operate under the intense pressure of expectations of Manchester United.
The best form of his career happened after Greece. It did seem to impact him for a couple of months with a terrible start to that season, but then he got back to how he'd played in his first season, before then stepping up further and being one of the best defenders in the league for the second half of that season (the only time he's performed at the level we were expecting when we bought him). Then he went to the Euro's and was one of the best there as well.

Then the next season started and everything just went to shit for some unknown reason. Personally I think he just had a fairly normal patch of poor form (which all players will have) at a time that the dressing room around him was obviously falling apart, and then reacted badly both to that poor form and the media spotlight on him and lost his head. The longer it went on the harder it would be for him to turn it around, and by this point it's difficult to see him doing it.
 

Varane around town

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If you're a team that wants to sit deep and hit teams on the counter, then Maguire is a decent option for you,

How do we sell him? The club have to accept a massive loss (lol) or loan him out until his contract expires.
 

lsd

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If you're a team that wants a slow clumsy useless lump of a defender, then Maguire is a decent option for you,

How do we sell him? The club have to accept a massive loss (lol) or loan him out until his contract expires.

Fixed
 

NewUser777

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He is not playing well at the moment. But this thread makes me cringe! We do not treat our players this way. Criticism is ok. Ridicule is not worthy of our fan base.
 

Crashoutcassius

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we will need him as varane wont stay fit. hopefully ETH can use his coaching skills to get performances from maguire are at least on par with his performances in the past, which have been very good.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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we will need him as varane wont stay fit. hopefully ETH can use his coaching skills to get performances from maguire are at least on par with his performances in the past, which have been very good.
I really don't know where this myth comes from, he missed 70 games in 10 years at Madrid, and a third of those (23 games) came in a single season when he had a bad injury. All things considered, he actually had a pretty excellent injury record for club and country.

Granted, he struggled last season, but it's just as likely to be because of adaption to a new league/intensity, bad luck, or Ole's tendency to rush players back from injuries, exacerbating their issues.
 

Huddsred

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Nobody's going to take him off us. We'd be lucky to get £10 million for him even in the current inflated market. He's a limited player with a good work ethic - a lot like Southgate was - but clubs back then weren't crazy enough to spend silly money on average players.
 

Ibi Dreams

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I really don't know where this myth comes from, he missed 70 games in 10 years at Madrid, and a third of those (23 games) came in a single season when he had a bad injury. All things considered, he actually had a pretty excellent injury record for club and country.

Granted, he struggled last season, but it's just as likely to be because of adaption to a new league/intensity, bad luck, or Ole's tendency to rush players back from injuries, exacerbating their issues.
Also possible that Madrid were aware of his declining fitness and that's why it wasn't hard for us to sign him. I don't think people are saying he's always been injury prone, just looking at what they've seen over the last year with us. He has not been reliably fit so far so it is a bit of a worry even if his previous record is good
 

weizxx

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I see a lot of nonsence threads been closed by the admins why this one keeps going? No one will buy him right?
 

Bebestation

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Are we again in 2019? When everybody who had guts to say that James, AWB and Maguire are awful signings were labelled as Anti-British brigade.
Our biggest problem at this moment are 2 players; Maguire and Awb who are shit, not fit for ETH system and we can't sell them for even 20% of what we paid them.
Ronaldo is 3rd problem but his contract ends next summer at least.
And rubbish again.

AWB and Maguire is more likely to be useful than Donny fecking Van De Beek :lol:
 

Andycoleno9

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And rubbish again.

AWB and Maguire is more likely to be useful than Donny fecking Van De Beek :lol:
Awb is completely finished here (ETH rather tried Lindelof and even Malacia there than AWB). Maguire is complete liability in high defence. On the other hand Donny can play in ETH's system (as he once did).
So while i agree that all 3 likely will leave next summer, Donny has best chances to be useful among those 3.
 

Marwood

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Rio won the league in his first season and we were top of the league when he got banned the next season, then he spent the season after playing with Silvestre and a young Wes Brown, with Kleberson and Djemba brothers in front of him, before Vidic came in.

His 'struggle' is massively overstated. If Maguire 'struggles' like that we would be creaming our pants.
That's exactly my point. There's no value in spending world record money on a player lile Rio then sticking a bunch of average players around him. It's silly. You have to give the expensive player a platform to show his worth. We keep making this mistake.

For the record the two seasons after his ban we came third and second and he was criticised in his first season. We did nothing in Europe either in his first four years.

If we'd have carried on with the likes of Silvestre and Kleberson I wonder how Rio's time would have been viewed now

This isn't me defending Maguire. Although its not me slating him either which is why a few posters aren't reading posts properly and Instead are just reacting.

He has his shortcomings and that likely won't be solved.

But the club needs to get the basics of the team in place first before it ever again spends huge money on individuals. It's a waste otherwise.

We finished second when he joined - his stats were unreal, best in the league - our top scorer. So yes paying that money for him made a difference.

Your last sentence is your opinion, it's not fact or based on any sort of reality or history. Your example of Rio Ferdinand was contradictory because he came before the other players.
Can't be bothered gling over that 2nd place finish and not sure why you're discussing Bruno. He was a middling fee. My point is spending huge sums, world record for the position type figures.

But in anycase, how about the last 18 month? Imagine we'd spent £100 million on Bruno. Would he still be worth it? Has this team been in a place to allow a £100 million attacking midfielder to do his thing?

Course not.

Maguires issues are well discussed but as a club we shouldn't have been paying £85 million for any CB at that stage. Don't care who it is. Because you'd never see the best of them with our midfield, lazy front three, questionable fullbacks etc. Doesn't matter how good a CB is, you expose him enough and he'll struggle to some extent.

Instead do some proper scouting and buy two quality players with the £85 million. Get the team doing the basics right first then go crazy on the odd individual.
 

Drakul

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oh god, give it a rest. Would you have rather 6th/7th then? 2nd best team in the league whatever the context is still a good finish.
I'd rather finish 6th/7th and win a trophy than 2nd and without one. Trophies matter. 2nd place finish means you are just the first loser. Also, its not like we went on and built on that 2nd place finish did we? We crashed to 6th the next season. But after being fed the line for 3 yrs by Ole that trophies are for egos, not surprised to see fans valuing a 2nd place finish more than a trophy.
 

RoyH1

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He will go to Juventus since Chiellini loves him so much.
It's actually not as bad an idea as you think. Serie A on a loan deal might be a better fit for him and leaving England could take some heat away from him. He could maybe recoup some value if he does well.
 

Roux

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That's exactly my point. There's no value in spending world record money on a player lile Rio then sticking a bunch of average players around him. It's silly. You have to give the expensive player a platform to show his worth. We keep making this mistake.

For the record the two seasons after his ban we came third and second and he was criticised in his first season. We did nothing in Europe either in his first four years.

If we'd have carried on with the likes of Silvestre and Kleberson I wonder how Rio's time would have been viewed now

This isn't me defending Maguire. Although its not me slating him either which is why a few posters aren't reading posts properly and Instead are just reacting.

He has his shortcomings and that likely won't be solved.

But the club needs to get the basics of the team in place first before it ever again spends huge money on individuals. It's a waste otherwise.



Can't be bothered gling over that 2nd place finish and not sure why you're discussing Bruno. He was a middling fee. My point is spending huge sums, world record for the position type figures.

But in anycase, how about the last 18 month? Imagine we'd spent £100 million on Bruno. Would he still be worth it? Has this team been in a place to allow a £100 million attacking midfielder to do his thing?

Course not.

Maguires issues are well discussed but as a club we shouldn't have been paying £85 million for any CB at that stage. Don't care who it is. Because you'd never see the best of them with our midfield, lazy front three, questionable fullbacks etc. Doesn't matter how good a CB is, you expose him enough and he'll struggle to some extent.

Instead do some proper scouting and buy two quality players with the £85 million. Get the team doing the basics right first then go crazy on the odd individual.
Looks like you're doubling down on your terrible logic...

Let me put it to you this way -

If Haarland wanted to join United last season for £100m - would you have turned him down because our midfield is shit? Jesus, get real. Every team in the world would have taken that deal if they had the spending power. Absolute no brainer - and just like Rio, you can build a team around him for the next 10+ years.
 

Roux

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I'd rather finish 6th/7th and win a trophy than 2nd and without one. Trophies matter. 2nd place finish means you are just the first loser. Also, its not like we went on and built on that 2nd place finish did we? We crashed to 6th the next season. But after being fed the line for 3 yrs by Ole that trophies are for egos, not surprised to see fans valuing a 2nd place finish more than a trophy.
I'd take that too - but we didn't win a trophy did we?

I wasn't arguing that 2nd place was more important than a trophy either - it was specifically about the impact of Bruno Fernandes.
 
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