UNITED IN FOR ENGLAND HERO MAGUIRE
MANCHESTER UNITED are expected to make a huge offer this summer for England’s outstanding World Cup defender Harry Maguire. The Old Trafford club would have to pay as much as £50million to prise Maguire (right) from Leicester, whose rich Thai owners will fight hard to keep him. Maguire was signed for £17m from Hull City last year but his value has rocketed after his stellar performances in Russia. England manager Gareth Southgate is known to have first selected Maguire because of his mental toughness, so he is tailor-made for the constant big-match pressures at United. Maguire could replace Phil Jones or Chris Smalling in Jose Mourinho’s line-up, as he has done with England. One obstacle is the transfer window closing early on August 9, when England’s players will only have just returned from their holidays.
THE FA are certain to offer Gareth Southgate an extended contract that will take the England manager and national hero through to the next World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
But there is no rush on either side for a deal to be agreed, with Southgate already signed up until Euro 2020, when England have a great opportunity to go one round better than in Russia, with potentially four or five of their games at Wembley.
Having tried and failed to sign Southgate on the cheap when they started negotiations two years ago, the FA know he and his advisers will be no pushovers when they get around to the new salary discussions.
Southgate, who earned a £350,000 bonus for taking England to the semi-finals in Russia, has a strong case for doubling his wages to £5million a year. He has achieved far more already than Fabio Capello, who earned in excess of that despite not properly learning English and spending a huge amount of time in his native Italy.
In contrast Southgate dedicates himself to the role and has turned down numerous commercial offers so he can focus on his coaching. ITV attracted a peak audience of 26.6m for England’s semi-final against Croatia — the biggest viewing figure for a sporting event since the London Olympics opening ceremony.
And while ITV pundits Ian Wright and Roy Keane had a shouting match about England’s performance in front of that whopping audience, they shared a drink after the programme.
Meanwhile, only FIFA could stop the media going anywhere near the England team bus after matches and then beam CCTV of the scene outside the coach into media areas.
From this fly- on-the-wall viewing, it could be gleaned that security chief Tony Conniford hugs everyone, Eric Dier eats pizza after games, and the arm-waving between operations staff and the bus driver suggests he might have been hired from the same firm that travel agency BAC Sport use — they turn up late and/or never know the route.
lMOSCOW’S
famous Gorky Park’s showcase condition for World Cup visitors is to a great extent down to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The oligarch funded a modern art gallery in the grounds in 2011 plus a complete refurbishment of the 300-acre park which had fallen into disrepair after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.