Former Premier League defender Frank Leboeuf does not believe Manchester United defender Harry Maguire is worth the £80m the club paid for him last summer.
The pundit and former World Cup winner, who represented Chelsea between 1996 and 2001, provided what you could argue to be a harsh assessment of Maguire. Speaking on ESPN FC, the Frenchman was asked if he thought Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side had overpaid for the England international, to which he responded:
“Nobody is worth £80m. We know that he is very special in England, the money gets very high and crazy when you want to buy an English or British player. [Harry] Maguire is a leader, he has qualities, but I think when you compare to [Virgil] Van Dijk, [Sergio] Ramos, John Terry, Marcel Desailly, I can name lots of fantastic centre-halves. No, he’s not in that level, he is maybe from the new generation somebody very strong, but technically struggling a lot and very, very slow.”
TIF Thoughts…
When the Red Devils signed Maguire, they paid the world-record fee for a defender and handed the centre-back a six-year contract with the option of a further year (as per BBC Sport). However, Leboeuf clearly hasn’t been impressed by what he perceives to be a lack of pace and the player’s limitations from a technical standpoint.
The former Leicester City man has made 48 appearances for United since signing for the club and is an established England international. The 27-year-old’s average performance rating in the Premier League this season currently stands at a rather solid 7.11/10, making him Manchester United’s sixth-most consistent performer (as per WhoScored).
Did Manchester United overpay for Harry Maguire?
Yes
No
Therefore, it seems Leboeuf may have been a little harsh on the centre-back, though given Virgil van Dijk has an average rating this season of 7.38 heading into the midweek programme, perhaps Maguire could have been expected to perform at a slightly higher standard considering his enormous transfer fee.