PRICED OUT
Guardiola claims Community Shield winners couldn’t have afforded £80m Maguire
PEP Guardiola lifted the Community Shield yesterday before declaring Manchester City could not afford £80million Harry Maguire.
Manchester United are expected to announce Maguire’s capture from Leicester City today in a move that Guardiola believes will make the Old Trafford side Premier League title contenders.
The Etihad club’s season is off to a flying start after beating Liverpool on penalties at Wembley but their boss would like another central defender.
Revealing they baulked at Leicester’s world-record asking price for Maguire, he said: ‘We were interested in him but we could not afford it and United could.
‘Maguire is a top-class central defender. He has all the qualities to work for United. They are contenders, with the players they have bought like Maguire.’
Bayern Munich target Leroy Sane limped off with a knee injury after a collision with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Sane — who wants to join the Bundesliga champions — left Wembley with strapping around his right knee but Guardiola insisted the injury is not serious. ‘The first impression was not good but I don’t think it is so bad,’ he said. ‘I will wait for the doctors.’
Bayern may have to fork out upwards of £135m if they want to sign him before the end of their transfer window on August 31.
City struck the first blow of the season here in the fight for supremacy between the best two teams in the land. It had been 84 days since they finally won through in a title fight and the two combatants picked up where they left off — trading blows, signature moments of class and goals.
Neither looked the finished article. City, in particular, were blowing by the end. But it was a compelling reprise of the old story, including a finale in which Liverpool threw everything at the Guardiola machine.
The outcome had a familiarity about it, too. Jurgen Klopp’s men created most chances and played the better football but lost by the last kick of a penalty shoot-out in which Georginio Wijnaldum’s miss was enough to deny them victory. Gabriel Jesus’ kick made it a maximum five for the victors. A reminder of the small margin for error in the months ahead.
Klopp needs a falling off in City’s competitive challenge if his side are to clinch the title, 30 years after their last one, yet the champions began in a way which suggested they are improved.
It took just a fractional positional failing — Joe Gomez allowing David Silva to navigate a free-kick into the path of Raheem Sterling — to see City ahead. Alisson could have done better than allow the forward’s shot to creep through his legs and then escape his grasp.
Virgil van Dijk had almost broken the deadlock for Liverpool just before the half-hour mark when he met a corner with a halfvolley which hit the underside of the bar and bounced down on to the goal-line. It would be his cushioned volley from a Jordan Henderson free-kick which found the head of Joel Matip to score the equaliser.
City could muster nothing in a second half Liverpool dominated. Their only chance arrived on a breakaway in which Sterling, fed by Kyle Walker, dithered and let the ball to run to Alisson. It was by a minor gymnastic miracle they reached the shoot-out at all. Mo Salah had left Oleksandr Zinchenko in his rear view mirror when he headed over Claudio Bravo but Walker cleared from the line with a scissor kick.
The shoot-out revealed City’s clinical streak but, after a difficult pre-season campaign, Klopp was understandably contented. ‘If you’re going to prepare for Man City, you have to play a pre-season match against Man City,’ he said. His team are ready.