Erik ten Hag ‘happy’ Harry Maguire snubbed West Ham offer

LONDON – Erik ten Hag insisted he is “happy” that Manchester United defender Harry Maguire snubbed an offer to join West Ham.

United accepted their £30 million (S$52 million) bid for Maguire, but the England international, 30, decided to pull out of the deal after failing to agree personal terms.

Maguire is likely to remain at Old Trafford once the transfer window closes, leaving him as their fourth choice centre-back behind Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof.

Ten Hag had already

stripped Maguire of the captaincy

after he made only eight Premier League starts last season. But he has no problem with Maguire staying.

“I am happy Harry Maguire is here. He is going to have to fight for his position as does everyone in the squad,” ten Hag said on Friday. “He knows that I expect from him... He can do it, he has the abilities to do it so now he has to show it.”

Maguire was an unused substitute for United’s season-opening 1-0 win against Wolves on Monday. Lindelof came on to replace the injured Martinez in another blow to the former Leicester player, but ten Hag urged Maguire to prove he deserves a first-team place.

“It is about character, to be convinced to play that role, he has all the abilities to do it,” he said.

“We have four good centre-halves and including Luke Shaw we have five, and we need it because we are going to play 50 or 60 games this season. All the players are internationals, so we have a lot of load to cover.”

Jonny Evans, 35, could still join United on a permanent basis despite Maguire’s presence. Evans signed on a short-term deal to cover United’s pre-season fixtures in July, but that contract has now expired.

Ten Hag has revealed talks are ongoing with the former United centre-back, who watched the Wolves game from the director’s box at Old Trafford.

“In this moment, he is not (under contract) but we are talking,” ten Hag said of Evans, who left Old Trafford for West Brom in 2015. “We will see. We are in talks and when we have news we will bring it.”

United this week issued a club statement regarding the internal investigation into Mason Greenwood, who has been suspended by them since January 2022 over allegations relating to a young woman after images and videos were posted online.

Greenwood was facing charges including attempted rape and assault, until the Crown Prosecution Service announced six months ago that

the case had been discontinued.

Following reports that United are preparing to bring Greenwood back into the first-team set-up, some fans protested against his potential return at Old Trafford on Monday.

However, ten Hag was adamant the issue would not affect him or his team. “We focus on the way of playing, we focus on the team performance. It is about the players who are available, so we focus on Tottenham,” he said.

His counterpart Ange Postecoglou is likewise determined to concentrate on what he has at his disposal, instead of trying to replace Harry Kane. The Australian fielded Richarlison up front in last week’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool and said a new striker was not a priority.

He said: “I know that’s the obvious place people look at because of recent outgoings but we’d been planning for that for a while.

“There’s still areas we can strengthen in all our lines: defensively, midfield, up front. Again, that’s not just bringing players in for the sake of it. They have to fit the profile we’re looking at.

“We’ve purposefully gone a bit younger because we want to build a team here. It’s not about putting the finishing touches on something, we’re building something here.”

In fact, with the arrivals of James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario, Manor Solomon, Micky van de Ven, Ashley Phillips and Alejo Veliz, Postecoglou wants a leaner headcount.

He said: “We can’t just keep acquiring players. That affects training and the players. Our focus right now is to trim the squad and see where that takes us.

“There’s still a couple of weeks left of the window, I’m sure we’ll see movement.” AFP