Manchester United dawdle over Harry Maguire

Manchester United face a battle to sign Leicester City defender Harry Maguire, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

United need a central defender because all of their central defenders are not good at football, and cannot be trusted to stay fit for more than 10 minutes at a time.

An example of both the substandard nature of the players and also of their unreliability when it comes to standing up consistently is Eric Bailly. The defender has been linked with a move away to Arsenal because they have proven they don’t know any better, but he is now set to stay at United for at least half a season more after suffering an injury that will keep him out for around four to five months. When he returns to fitness he will still not be good enough to play for the team, so you do have to wonder what the point of it all is.

While Maguire is hardly flip hot, he has shown himself capable of playing football for several minutes in a row, which marks him ahead of anyone currently at the disposal of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

United have already had one bid of £60 million rejected, with Brendan Rodgers making it clear that the club do not need to sell and will only let him go if the club’s valuation is met. That is meant to be around £85 million, and any deal will need to be done in time to get a replacement in for Leicester.

There is little over a week to go in the transfer window, and while United are linked with Sean Longstaff, Paulp Dybala, Bruno Fernandes and others, you can expect Edward Woodward to sign Leroy Lita from Margate instead.