Harry Maguire’s Famous Pal Shows Manchester United Revival Is Possible

Returning to his spiritual home of Bramhall Lane, at the club he represented 134 times Harry Maguire didn’t disappoint.

Crowned Player of the Match versus Sheffield United, he was an indomitable presence at the heart of the Manchester United defense.

First to every ball and commanding in possession, he looked a lot more like the man the club thought it was buying when it broke the world record transfer fee for a defender.

Post-game his manager Erik ten Hag’s assessment was typically blunt and direct.

“I am happy with his performance,” he said.

“I have to say Harry is playing like we want him to play. Very proactive out of possession, dominating his opponent, stepping in when necessary, reading the game, good covering but also in possession very proactive, stepping in, delivering good passes and switching.”

For Maguire, the significance of this praise cannot be understated. His manager’s actions over some time have demonstrated the former Leicester City star is not high in his estimations.

This summer was a case in point, he first stripped him of the club captaincy and then tried to flog Maguire to West Ham United.

The state of affairs represented a significant decline for a player described by the man who signed him, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as “one of the best center-backs in the game today.”

A constant figure of ridicule and often the target of unacceptable abuse, his presence in the England team has been lambasted to the point of tedium.

It’s easy to ignore the vitriol he receives as an outsider, but an insight into just how difficult it can be was offered by his mother after the Scotland vs England game in September when Maguire scored an own goal.

“I understand that in the football world, there are ups and downs, positives and negatives, but what Harry receives has gone far beyond ‘football’,” she said.

Maguire’s mom said she believed the level of abuse her son received was “not OK” and hoped that it could be stopped so that parents would not “go through this in the future, especially the young boys and girls breaking through the ranks.”

She added: “It’s a good job [Maguire was] mentally strong and can handle it as others may not be able to.”

“I wish this sort of abuse on nobody,” she concluded.

The depths of her son’s strength are certainly being demonstrated by his persistence in the face of so much negativity.

He now looks on a path to recovery and should he need any further inspiration a glance at his England center-back partner will provide the evidence required.

‘Johnny, Johnny Stones’

As Manchester City fans toasted their club’s victory in the Champions League Final there was a player serenaded above all the rest.

‘Johnny, Johnny Stones’ they cried to the tune of Bony M’s Daddy Cool.

It was a deserved accolade, Stones had just turned in another spellbinding display as a holding midfielder a position he had somehow mastered in half a season.

Amidst the triumph it was easy to forget just how close that all came to never happening.

At one stage, perhaps not at the nadir Maguire was in but close, Stones too was bound for the exit door at Manchester City.

The lowest ebb is well documented, during the condensed lockdown season of 2020 City faced the un-fancied Lyon in the Champions League.

Manager Pep Guardiola opted for a three-man backline but chose a teenage Eric Garcia and a 35-year-old holding midfielder Fernandinho as the two players alongside Kyle Walker.

It was a damming indictment and fuelled speculation Stones would be sold that summer.

Indeed, the club did want to shift Stones, but when Eric Garcia left for Barcelona he was given the chance to stay put.

Only recently has the man dubbed the ‘Barnsley Beckenbauer’ opened up about that moment and, in a manner that you could imagine Maguire expressing this summer, described his unwillingness to leave.

“I never thought about that. I think as soon as you accept that or have that mindset then you have killed yourself,” he explained.

“I always wanted to stay, I have stayed and I absolutely love it. I wanted to prove to myself, I didn’t say to anyone ‘It was because I want to prove to you’.

“I think, in anything, you have to prove to yourself first and foremost that you deserve to be here, you are good enough to be here, and what you bring to the team.

“It was probably one of the hardest times in my career. I literally went back to firstly looking at myself, being super critical of myself and what I could do better on the football pitch, and then looking into every fine detail, down to food, what food, training, what training, what extras.

“That’s come down to doing stuff here and then going home and doing work, even late at night, or straight after the training and all these kinds of specific things, finding these small margins, put them all together to kind of break where I was at after coming back to playing.”

The season after Stones nearly left he returned to the team and formed a brilliant partnership with Ruban Dias that delivered the title and took the team to the Champions League Final.

Since then his been a mainstay for Guardiola and never looked back.

Maybe Maguire has paid a visit to his mate from the England team and discussed the way he turned it around.

If not he should draw strength from the example.

It’s a reminder of the old cliché ‘it ain’t over til’ it’s over’ can quite often be true.