Harry Maguire | Signed

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sunny Jim said:
I think people underestimate Smalling
And yes, while not great, Maguire is better than what we currently have. With a world record fee for a defender we are not buying a world class center back, are we?
Click to expand...

Smalling has been at the club since 2010. His best season was under LVG and lasted for that one season. If you can't cement yourself as a core CB in a decade, there is no "underestimating". He's been estimated and he's just average. We have no idea what maguire could be. He could take a step up, he could be a complete flop. I'm not going to base his entire career off how he is managed at Leicester. If Ole or the transfer board only have a few select targets and he's in the top few, then we have to try and get him. If we can't do a deal, we'll likely walk and keep the ones we've got.

This idea being pushed by others on this thread that we just "buy X because i think he's good and cheaper" is just fan speak. The club have targets, we are fans. We have no say on the club.
 
If they aren't gonna budge on their valuation of the player, then we really should walk away ala Morata.

I'd personally go for someone like Ibrahima Konate who plays for RB Leipzig in Germany. He's strong in the air and a physically very imposing CB that is also very quick. He's still very young at 20 but I'm of a similar mindset to Louis Van Gaal when it comes to young players.
 
Tony247 said:
90m is too much. Get Dias for much less and younger and talented.
Click to expand...

This conversation has been done to death. (Would also say go for anybody else mind, and we keep Harry as that works for Leicester!)
Would Dias be cheaper, likely yes, but also far higher risk, as he is unproven in the league, new to country, etc.
Just look at Bailly if you need evidence.
Not sure why this alternative player argument is getting continually pushed?
Is it purely fiscal? Like you would literally need to raid your own piggy bank? Or is it a new shiny toy/latest fashionable name mentality versus big Harry from Sheff?
 
Last edited:
rpitroda said:
If the rumours of £80m are true and Leicester have an even higher valuation then that, we should be walking away.

However, that depends on how well we are executing our transfer window. If we are doing things properly, we would have alternatives and have already explored a potential transfer for them and so would now just need to ramp up the process to sign them.

On the other hand, if we have not done that and have no alternatives, we are pretty stumped if we want to upgrade CB and may end up increasing our offer to get it done, unless we would rather go into the season with our current CBs.

Ifs and buts.
Click to expand...

Suspect Maguire is the alternative after we’ve missed out on other targets so it’ll be him or no-one. We’re clearly desperate as haven’t walked away from this transfer at the fees now being quoted.

It’s not hard to go out and find other alternatives who are better than what we have especially as we aren’t going to achieve instant success with or without Maguire and actually have to rebuild over a 2-3 year period.
 
80M is expensive but do we have other options? He is definitely better than what we have right now. Blame it on Woody for not sanctioning the buy last season.

I am not a fan of Smalling. With VAR, he is going to get lots of fouls against him - he likes to pull opponent shirts.
 
Buy someone else

Hes just too slow to be the worlds most expensive defender.

If we had bought him 2 years ago for £20m you could understand it. We have to accept we missed out on the deal and buy someone else.
 
Bayern bought a world cup winning Pavard for 35m and secured it without much hassle. There're definitely options out there, if you have plans and good scouts.
 
Isotope said:
Bayern bought a world cup winning Pavard for 35m and secured it without much hassle. There're definitely options out there, if you have plans and good scouts.
Click to expand...

He isn't that good though.

A Madrid just bought a guy who scored a lovely free kick in a World Cup semi final and starting in this years Champions League final for £20m and everyone think he's shite on here.
 
I think he will be a good signing and if he does preform then the price tag will seem irrelevant.

But I honestly don’t get people saying we should name one attainable player to sign instead. It’s not our job to do. There are scouts who are paid to identify players and people in charge to put deals in place. It’s their job to do.

The only thing that upsets me with this transfer is that we wasted a year and ended up going for the same player the board deemed unwarranted 12 months ago, for more money.
 
MyDevil said:
80M is expensive but do we have other options? He is definitely better than what we have right now. Blame it on Woody for not sanctioning the buy last season.

I am not a fan of Smalling. With VAR, he is going to get lots of fouls against him - he likes to pull opponent shirts.
Click to expand...

Really good point, Maguire in the oppositions box will be even more of a threat with VAR too.
 
We don't want to spend 80m on Maguire and Leicester will probably replace him with frigging dunk whose evualated at 40m. We can meet somewhere in between with a 60m + Jones/rojo/Bailly. They would get all the 60m with no hassles about replacing him while we get out man
 
What I think people are failing to grasp is that to buy these so called World class centrebacks, it’s going to cost upwards of £100 million.

Koulibaly would be £100m+
Varane would be £100m+
De Ligt didn’t want us

Who else is there? Because if I’m paying £100m+ for a defender like those mentioned above, what I’m actually getting are players that have never kicked a ball in the Premier League.

Yes he will cost more than Van Dijk but Liverpool we’re actually smart getting him when they did, just like we were with Pogba. Both of those players would cost significantly more now.
 
Not sure why we are now questioning whether he's worth the money or not, the value of players and their worth sailed a long time ago. I believe to time to measure any players value is at the end of their career at the club and not at the beginning.
 
In 5 years time when CBs in this country cost £120m we'll look back and say £80m was a good price!

The market has gone mad but there has always been a premium on buying players who are proven in the EPL already and even more so if they're home grown. Maguire at £80m for 6 years of service is virtually the same per season as Alderweireld at £25m for 2 years. Alderweireld is slightly better but defenders don't usually reach their peak until their late 20s. Experience plays such a big role in the position that Maguire can still improve over the next 3 years.
 
Adamsk7 said:
What I think people are failing to grasp is that to buy these so called World class centrebacks, it’s going to cost upwards of £100 million.

Koulibaly would be £100m+
Varane would be £100m+
De Ligt didn’t want us

Who else is there? Because if I’m paying £100m+ for a defender like those mentioned above, what I’m actually getting are players that have never kicked a ball in the Premier League.

Yes he will cost more than Van Dijk but Liverpool we’re actually smart getting him when they did, just like we were with Pogba. Both of those players would cost significantly more now.
Click to expand...

Agree. I know some people don't seem to put the same 'value' on it as others but we would be signing arguably Englands best CB. I think you are absolutely right and again people underestimate the value of understanding this league. Managing the transition to it is imo harder than any other in world football and whilst strikers new to the league struggle to score goals in doing so, defenders cost you them. Some players never recover from it. I think playing well in this league comes with an additional transfer tax irrespective of whether you are English or not and so should it.
 
WPMUFC said:
Smalling has been at the club since 2010. His best season was under LVG and lasted for that one season. If you can't cement yourself as a core CB in a decade, there is no "underestimating". He's been estimated and he's just average. We have no idea what maguire could be. He could take a step up, he could be a complete flop. I'm not going to base his entire career off how he is managed at Leicester. If Ole or the transfer board only have a few select targets and he's in the top few, then we have to try and get him. If we can't do a deal, we'll likely walk and keep the ones we've got.

This idea being pushed by others on this thread that we just "buy X because i think he's good and cheaper" is just fan speak. The club have targets, we are fans. We have no say on the club.
Click to expand...

Smalling is miles better than Jones, Rojo and Bailly and actually good enough to be relied upon defend well against good players and teams which hes done countless times over the last few years PSG being a good recent example. If you have issues with his ball playing fine, but his defending is good. The only times he really plays badly is when hes paired will Jones on one of his nervous days. Realistically we need 4 reliable CBs. Maguire, Lindelof, Smalling and hopefully Tuanzebe.

The rest could be sold and it would make little difference.
 
Litch said:
Agree. I know some people don't seem to put the same 'value' on it as others but we would be signing arguably Englands best CB. I think you are absolutely right and again people underestimate the value of understanding this league. Managing the transition to it is imo harder than any other in world football and whilst strikers new to the league struggle to score goals in doing so, defenders cost you them. Some players never recover from it. I think playing well in this league comes with an additional transfer tax irrespective of whether you are English or not and so should it.
Click to expand...

What does being England’s best CB actually mean though?. Go back to time of Rio etc and Maguire wouldn’t even be in the squad, I think it’s completely irrelevant especially as he has been patchy playing for England.

Maybe it isn’t easy to find someone who could adapt as quickly but it’s definitely possible to buy a better player for less. Maguire hasn’t even been exceptional at Leicester, he’s done well but he’s by no means proven as a top quality player and he could easily take a season or two to adapt.
 
golden_blunder said:
Good point that many miss. If they think that Ake will be picked up for less than €50m they need to get their heads checked.

Plus Ake isn’t as good as Maguire
Click to expand...

True. However you expect that a club with 50+ scouts can come out with more names then simply Maguire, koulibaly and De Ligt. That list could have been provided by a 13 year old FM fanatic
 
This is surely a big reason why we should be building our team through the youths and under 23s.
Prices are going out through the roof for players now so we should be introducing young players in games that don't mean as much to us, so as to get used to playing with first team. This is the way to go.imo.
 
Bestietom said:
This is surely a big reason why we should be building our team through the youths and under 23s.
Prices are going out through the roof for players now so we should be introducing young players in games that don't mean as much to us, so as to get used to playing with first team. This is the way to go.imo.
Click to expand...

We also need to change our negotiating team and reform our scouting team. Our negotiations take ages to conclude and we seem unable to unearth unknown talent anymore
 
RkkMan said:
He's extremely slow nowadays at covering ground and in his turns, takes too many touches on the ball instead of releasing it quickly and bang average ball playing ability all this at 31 he ain't gonna get better having him as a starter next season will be as big a disaster as having Phil Jones starting at CB
Click to expand...

And like I already said, I don't think he's been as bad as is made out. He can't release the ball quickly, why do you think that is? He also doesn't have 'bang average' ball playing ability, he's actually a good passer of the ball. I personally wouldn't prioritise a Matic replacement over upgrading the defence.
 
Adnan said:
If they aren't gonna budge on their valuation of the player, then we really should walk away ala Morata.

I'd personally go for someone like Ibrahima Konate who plays for RB Leipzig in Germany. He's strong in the air and a physically very imposing CB that is also very quick. He's still very young at 20 but I'm of a similar mindset to Louis Van Gaal when it comes to young players.
Click to expand...

Konate or Tah. Both are strong, quick and comfortable with the ball at their feet. Either would cost less than Maguire (indeed you could probably have a combination of one of them plus Alderweireld for the kind of fee necessary to get Maguire).
 
Jimmy Skitz said:
We have said from the start we do not want nor need to sell.

The only way we would consider it is for a world record fee, there is no negotiating to be done, there is a price set you either match it or we keep him.

Listening to Mark Ogden earlier it sounded to me like you simply can’t offer that until Lukaku is sold, if the whole £100m budget thing is true
Click to expand...

Come on mate you don't actually believe that nonsense do you?

That was obviously planted in the press by United to try to make other clubs a bit more realistic with player valuations.

We have spent £65m this summer so i doubt United are trying to barter Leicester down to £35m for Maguire. Any money received for Lukaku would go to buying his replacement.
 
stevoc said:
Come on mate you don't actually believe that nonsense do you?

That was obviously planted in the press by United to try to make other clubs a bit more realistic with player valuations.

We have spent £65m this summer so i doubt United are trying to barter Leicester down to £35m for Maguire. Any money received for Lukaku would go to buying his replacement.
Click to expand...
I originally believed we had £100m budget this summer, which I thought strange at the time. Sees like it was a load of crap.
 
golden_blunder said:
Good point that many miss. If they think that Ake will be picked up for less than €50m they need to get their heads checked.

Plus Ake isn’t as good as Maguire
Click to expand...

Maguire isn't a 80mill defender. He gets beaten in the air and sometimes as positioning is not the greatest.

World cup Columbia first goal he was beaten for the header.
Croatia second goal he should have came across or at least communicate better.

https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/118835-maguire-to-utd-city/page/2/#comments

Their own fans think 40mill is his price. Some think smalling is better - I'll let that one sink in....
 
Zed 101 said:
The alternative way to look at the Maguire fee is feck it if we genuinely want him then, flex our considerable financial muscles, send out a statement of intent, we are Utd, we are the biggest brand in world football, sure the fee is high but it is nothing to us, start making some waves, show dominance right now the message going out is confused and a touch directionless, given the past woeful performances by Woodward it is hardly inspiring becfore a new season
Click to expand...

Thats the message we have been sending out since 2013. And thats why Leicester want £80m for Maguire and Newcastle want £50m for Longstaff. They know United are loaded.
 
Roboc7 said:
Suspect Maguire is the alternative after we’ve missed out on other targets so it’ll be him or no-one. We’re clearly desperate as haven’t walked away from this transfer at the fees now being quoted.

It’s not hard to go out and find other alternatives who are better than what we have especially as we aren’t going to achieve instant success with or without Maguire and actually have to rebuild over a 2-3 year period.
Click to expand...

That's my reading of it too. I've a feeling Ed was still holding out hope for De Ligt and now that that saga is definitely over I think we'll see a CB come in over the next week, most likely Maguire.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.