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THIS time last year Harry Maguire accepted his future lay away from Manchester United — with boss Erik ten Hag happy for him to leave.
Now, Ten Hag has identified the England centre-half as the man to rescue United’s sorry season.
Rex
EPAMaguire certainly wasn’t seen as so key last term when Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof and even Luke Shaw — when United played a back-three — were ahead in the pecking order.
The ignominy of having the captain’s armband taken off him in the summer and handed to Bruno Fernandes felt like the final straw.
But before a proposed £30million move to West Ham could go through, a deeply hurt Maguire wanted a £15m payout from United and was not going to budge.
Neither would United and it looked like he was heading for footballing oblivion.
That was to underestimate the Sheffield-born player, who was determined to show his steel and prove his detractors wrong.
Through the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of this season, he can come out with his head held high, having constantly stepped up to the plate as injuries have ravaged the back four.
All of the four players mentioned previously are in the treatment room.
Maguire, 31, has been there himself but tries to play through the knocks, pulls and strains.
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His experience will be even more important with 19-year-old Willy Kambwala alongside him at Bournemouth this weekend — as he was in last Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool.
And Maguire now has Ten Hag’s praise ringing in his ears.
The United manager said: “We were always very happy with Harry Maguire but he wants to play.
“He’s a great leader, he’s a very good defender, very comfortable on the ball and I count all of those abilities. We have had problems with our defensive line so he is even more important to lead that line, to make us play from the back.
“We are very pleased he is there and we need him to get our results and achieve our targets.”
Unfortunately, United go into Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off at Bournemouth with just one win from their last six league games.
That has pretty much put paid to their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League and left them relying on the FA Cup to salvage their season.
The sixth-placed Red Devils stand 11 points behind Tottenham in fourth, with just seven league games to go.
Bournemouth will be no easy fixture either as United found out in December when they lost 3-0 to them at home.
That came just three days after United had beaten Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag curiously claimed yesterday that they were not “mentally strong enough” to handle those two games in such a short space of time.
He said: “It was after a very good performance against Chelsea in the week and we were mentally not ready for that game.
“They battled us and we lost the battles. This game will not be different, that is the way they want to play, they want to fight with you.
“You have to go into that fight, have the conviction and need to support each other to win battles, outplay them, out- run them.”
As ever, Ten Hag’s problems are not contained to the pitch.
This week he lost his director of football as John Murtough left after nearly 11 years at the club — another victim of new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s sweeping changes.
That follows the departure of chief executive Richard Arnold — and those two were behind Ten Hag’s appointment.
‘I MISS HIS SUPPORT’
Now Dan Ashworth is coming in from Newcastle to take on Murtough’s role, Omar Berrada has been poached from neighbours Manchester City to be the new CEO, with Jason Wilcox arriving from Southampton as technical director.
Murtough’s departure this week hit Ten Hag hard and he admitted: “For the moment, of course, I miss his support, the surround support, you miss that.
“He has moved on, we worked very good together, I say thank you to John and wish him all the best for the future.”
Ten Hag insists he has a good working relationship with Ratcliffe and Sir David Brailsford who are now overseeing the football side of the club.
He said: “I work with the new ownership very good, closely together, it doesn’t change the way I work here.
“It’s perfect, still perfect, I am happy with that but we want to set the right conditions to be successful.”
Not everyone seems convinced Ten Hag will be working under the new regime in the long term.
But the United boss — who expects Marcus Rashford to be fit despite hobbling out of the 2-2 draw with Liverpool — added: “This industry, is about results.
“But you have to see what’s underneath. I see what’s underneath.
“I see the potential. I see the direction. So I’m positive about the way we want to go and we will be successful.”
The Dutchman admitted he sometimes feels like an MP — getting the blame for everything even if it is not all in his control.
He said: “As a manager it’s like a minister, you don’t have everything in your hands.
“You are responsible for everything. And I take that.”
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