Man Utd departure falling through ‘upset’ £30m man as Prem coach explains wounding miss
Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay of Manchester United celebrate winning the Carabao Cup
Kevin Nolan has admitted he was “a bit upset” that West Ham didn’t manage to snare Harry Maguire, as he suggested it was “probably upsetting” for Maguire and Manchester United.
Maguire came agonisingly close to bidding farewell to the nightmare spell at Old Trafford over the summer. After being a definitive starter in his first few seasons, he was pushed down the pecking order after a while.
Both Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag identified the need to recruit better defenders. The former signed Raphael Varane, while the latter brought in Lisandro Martinez, both of whom start together when fit.
Last season, that meant Maguire only played 16 Premier League games, with just half of those coming from the start. He’s also been far from a fan favourite over the past few years.
As such, the opportunity to make his way out of the club this summer seemed to be a good one.
West Ham offered £30million to United for his services, and that was accepted.
However, the potential deal wasn’t without its snags, as Maguire wanted a pay-off from United, but reports suggested that was taking too long.
Maguire has since stated he and West Ham “just didn’t come to an agreement” after they’d had their bid accepted.
Maguire deal falling through caused upsets
West Ham coach Nolan has suggested the deal was close, and that he was upset that they didn’t manage to get it over the line.
“I think it was very close,” he said on talkSPORT.
“I was a bit upset that we didn’t make it [happen].”
On the same track as Maguire’s explanation, Nolan suggests it was simply a case that the club wasn’t able to find an agreement with the defender.
“I think it was just in the end, the money didn’t get sorted from what I can gather which is obviously upsetting from our behalf because we wanted to [sign him],” he said.
It was likely not only the Hammers who were upset by the deal falling through, as Nolan believes Maguire and United would have been too.
“Probably upsetting from Harry’s behalf and probably United’s behalf as well,” Nolan added.
“I think the gaffer [David Moyes] was in contact with Harry, his agent and everything else. But yeah, obviously we then had to move onto our next target.”
While it would have stung for West Ham, they managed to get Konstantinos Mavropanos through the door. United obviously missed out on £30million, so they may have felt the transfer falling through more than anyone.
For Maguire, he believes he’ll “play lots of games” despite having played just 23 minutes as a substitute so far this season. As such, it doesn’t sound like he’s very upset, but whether that seeps in the longer he isn’t playing is another question.
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