In 2019, Manchester United made the incredibly boneheaded decision to spend 87 million euros on center back Harry Maguire, with Leicester City laughing all the way at the fact that the Red Devils were willing to splurge the amount of money a top striker costs on a physically limited central defender.
While Maguire is far from the worst center back in English football, he has not even been worth a fraction of the fee Man United spent on him, with his blunders proving so costly that the Red Devils were forced to bench him just a couple of years ago.
Manchester United have since moved on, rebuilding their defense this past summer by signing Matthijs de Ligt from Bayern Munich and Leny Yoro from Lille for a combined 100 million euros.
It’s debatable if Manchester United have fully covered their issues defensively, but they are in a better place now with a young nucleus of Yoro, de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, and Noussair Mazraoui forming the back line in front of goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Raphael Varane was sent packing this past summer as a free agent, but Manchester United are still looking to get rid of some of the veteran holdovers of the previous era, including Maguire himself.
According to a report from the Daily Star, Manchester United are so desperate to get rid of Harry Maguire that they are now willing to sell the 31-year-old for a meager 10 million euros.
That’s about half of his market value and nearly a tenth of the initial transfer fee. At this point, the amount of money Manchester United would get for Maguire is so low that they might as well keep him around.
Because when Yoro is healthy, Man United will only need Maguire as a fourth-choice center back, which is about his level. He is a decent ball-player with good physical strength, and that’s really all Man United need depth-wise.
That 10 million euros isn’t going to help them materially. It might cover the wages of a free agent signing like, say, Adrien Rabiot or Jonathan David, but that’s about it.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.