Harry Maguire waits alone outside the dressing room in his club suit as his defeated teammates change following the defeat to Manchester City in the 2023 FA Cup final. United captain Bruno Fernandes does interviews in several languages in his kit, while Lisandro Martinez and Alejandro Garnacho talk to their Argentinian teammate Julian Alvarez by the City dressing room.
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Maguire must feel awful. He’s United’s captain but he’s a bystander, his team have lost and he’s not even made it off the bench despite Martinez not being fit to play. Scott McTominay was brought on for Victor Lindelof with seven minutes to go, with United needing an equaliser. Maguire stands waiting for his teammates, checking his phone, polite with people who say hello. There’s no storming onto the waiting team bus.
Ahead of the Cup final, Erik ten Hag said of Maguire: “Let’s say I’m happy he’s here and when we needed him he did his job. But it’s also a decision he has to make.” His manager wanted to get his message out and that was the first time that Harry Maguire (and David de Gea) knew, for certain, that there were doubts about their futures from their boss. It was said diplomatically by a manager who’d rather praise than criticise his players, but the ball was shifted into the court of the player who still has two years left on his United contract.
Ten Hag is ruthless. He has to be. He’ll be the one who loses his job if Manchester United don’t become successful again, just as David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lost theirs.
The Dutchman made a big call to drop his captain at the start of last season, a victim of the abomination at Brentford where he was one of 11 poor players. Form improved without Maguire, but Ten Hag had other issues, chiefly what to do with Cristiano Ronaldo. He played that card well and wasn’t complaining when Ronaldo hoisted his own petard. He’s made the call now on his captain and the decision is common sense – why have a captain who seldom plays? Maguire is not even his primary backup central defender.
The Yorkshireman was as gutted to lose the captaincy as he was delighted when he was given the honour under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Though there’s no contract to being captain, it’s not supposed to end like this. A captain usually sees the armband passed on when he’s left the club in his mid-thirties, not get ‘stripped’ of it (as if he’s done something wrong) and continue playing at United as a former captain.
Outwardly, some players were surprised too, just as they were when De Gea was allowed to leave. Inwardly, perhaps they were less surprised and the momentum is with the manager who has exercised his authority because he feels that’s what right for his team.
Maguire was the one who decided to put the statement out on Instagram on Sunday. He wanted to be upfront, he didn’t want it leaking out and spending the next few days living under a cloud preparing to travel to New Jersey on Wednesday evening as United start a four-game pre-season tour. He’s had enough online abuse which has gone well beyond the pale from some United fans. He’s a working-class Sheffield lad who can handle negative opinions and industrial language, but a bomb threat to his house? Give over. In real life, he’ll be supported by the majority of United fans at matches.
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Maguire’s had a rough couple of years, yet when he went off injured at Villa Park in May 2021 United fans were disappointed that he’d miss the Europa League final. So was he, but he still travelled with all of his family when most of the players’ families stayed in Manchester.
The following season was difficult, with Ronaldo back and the biggest presence in the dressing room – for better or worse.
Maguire has two years on a contract that was improved as United qualified for the Champions League and, for now, he intends to fight for his place in the United side and be as professional as he was last season. Then, he didn’t leak his displeasure and only spoke of his team. He trained hard and mostly played well – Sevilla away aside – when selected, but the damage was done for most fans and his mistakes were hammered. When you’ve become a scapegoat it’s hard to change the narrative.
Maguire needed a standout performance or three for fans to re-evaluate their opinions, instead he got odd starts against lower-ranked teams and played well in pretty much all of those games: United conceded only one goal in the last 12 league games where Maguire was on the pitch.
The former Leicester defender (another, Jonny Evans, was re-signed this week on a short-term contract after impressing coaching staff) has said that circumstances can change quickly in football and he’s right. There have been times when it has appeared that fellow defenders Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have had no future at United, yet both are likely to start as first-choice defenders at the beginning of the season.
The outlook is not positive for United’s No 5 though and judging by the evidence seen under Ten Hag, he is behind four other players for his position. It’s not what he wants, nor what the club expected for a player who turned down Manchester City to join United for that record £80 million fee for a defender.
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That he cost so much was partly down to Jose Mourinho, who specifically instructed Ed Woodward not to go above £50million for Maguire in May 2018. Woodward abided by that wish but, come August 2019, United paid that huge fee to a Leicester who had little pressure to sell. United would do well to get half of that now, but Maguire’s talents should still command a decent fee rather than a loan transfer where United receive little.
Sooner or later, Maguire needs to be playing the game he loves on a more regular basis. He’s been one of England’s most important players and there’s a European Championships next summer – and competition from emerging players like Levi Colwill who was part of England’s first European Under-21 Championship-winning team since 1984.
United have not intended to push Maguire out. Nor is he a player like Alex Telles or Fred, a player United are hoping to get money in the bank for to boost a transfer fund that needs to be used on a striker. However, if an offer comes in then of course United will listen – and the club needs money to go back into the transfer market and stay within FFP rules.
Maguire will watch as a new player is anointed captain. Bruno Fernandes is one considered to be a leader – and not only because he can speak four languages fluently to communicate with the United Nations of players at Carrington. He also plays every game, like Maguire once did.
Casemiro’s leadership skills also stood out when United first spoke to him and then saw him turning up first for training each day before the rest, demanding much of others and setting the standards in training, but as Erik ten Hag said last week in Oslo, he’ll be the one who decides the next Manchester United captain, not the dressing room.
(Top photo: Manu Reino/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
