Man Utd anxious with fallen star’s value ‘depreciating all the time’ amid fresh claim ‘he needs to get out’

Harry Maguire is becoming less and less valuable, Manchester United have been warned by an observer who wonders why he is still in the England squad.

Maguire started for England in their draw with Ukraine in qualification for Euro 2024 on Saturday. However, his situation at club level in recent months has been bleak. Indeed, he has only made one appearance as a substitute for Man Utd so far this season.

When the summer transfer window was open, Man Utd reached an agreement in principle to sell Maguire to West Ham. Alas, various factors held up the deal until it was called off and could not be revived.

Why Maguire remains in the England squad has become a significant topic of debate amid the deterioration of his situation at Old Trafford. Someone who thinks other players should be given an opportunity by Gareth Southgate is former Celtic boss Neil Lennon, who has told Man Utd that Maguire is ‘depreciating’ and ‘needs to get out’ for his own sake.

Lennon told Sky Sports: “Harry’s depreciating all the time – every week and every month, the less he plays.

“You need those minutes on the pitch. The other thing is, he’s under much more scrutiny than anybody else because there’ll be this sort of perspective that he’s a pet – he’s Southgate’s favourite. And there is an argument to that.

“But I’ve watched Harry over the last 18 months and he’s not getting enough game time. It’s not enough. I don’t know how Gareth can still justify picking him in the squad, first of all, and picking him over other players.

“For Harry’s own sake and career, he needs to get out and play regular first-team football at the highest level he can because it doesn’t look like he’s going to get much game time at Manchester United.”

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Maguire still ‘under scrutiny’

Lennon continued: “He’s under scrutiny all the time. If he goes in and makes a mistake, he’s going to be under the spotlight again, he’s going to come under all this criticism. I just think, if he’d been out for maybe six weeks or something like that, I could understand it.

“But this has been over the course of maybe 10, 12, 18 months now – not playing regular for Manchester United when these guys are all playing regularly for Premier League teams or Serie A teams or teams at the highest club level.”

Maguire was removed from his role as Man Utd captain earlier in the summer and is not regarded as a regular starter at centre-back due to Erik ten Hag’s preference for Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez.

In theory, this should be an important season for him ahead of Euro 2024, but his status in Southgate’s England squad still seems to be fairly settled.

Nevertheless, a player only gets one career, and at the age of 30, there will come a time when Maguire will have to wonder if he is getting as much out of his now as he should be.