Harry Maguire is not moving to the London Stadium, before the summer transfer window closes, after all. The Manchester United central defender was slated to leave Old Trafford for East London, as the two sides agreed on a £30 million transfer fee earlier this month. The deal was starting to come to fruition in early August…before it was then nixed. In the past few days, it looked like the transfer deal could be back on, but today brought news that, once again, it’s off.United won’t let him leave, because they now deem it too late in the window to find a replacement center back.
So what happened? How did this messy situation unfold?
Money. Period. It’s all about how Maguire, one of the worst signings in United club history, demanded a payoff due to the pay cut he was set to take with the Hammers. If you look at the table of Man Utd wages, you’ll see that the English international (who is somehow much better in form internationally than he is for club competition) is near the top, earning £190,000 a week. Obviously, this fact offends United supporters greatly, given what a disaster class he’s been since moving over from Leicester City in 2019. Maguire is higher on the pecking order of Man Utd salaries than most of the club’s key players and stars, despite being stripped of the captaincy in July, and not yet featuring through the first three games.
The Hammers were trying to find a way to pay a little more of the wage bill that United are stuck with for the 30-year-old. Maguire has two years left on his Old Trafford deal, and was demanding a hefty £7m payoff from MUFC to get this deal over the line.
That’s because West Ham had agreed on a four-year deal with a salary of about £120,000 a week, which would have been about a £70k weekly decrease in paygrade. Hence the payoff was demanded, but not met, and now United are stuck with the man often referred to as “the new Phil Jones,” or “Slab Head.”
At least until the January transfer window. While the Hammers did revive their interest, the only other potential interested party was Everton, who reportedly offered a season long loan deal in which United would continue to paying 75% of Maguire’s salary. Yikes! That sounds suboptimal for Old Trafford. When Harry Maguire moved over from Leicester, the transfer fee was £80m, record-breaking for a defender. So you can see why his salary is so high, and why he’s so difficult to move on to another team.
Just like with Phil Jones, you can hate him for opting to sit the bench and collect a nice payday, instead of taking a pay cut and actually getting playing time elsewhere. However, you can’t blame him for receiving that contract- that’s the fault of the club.