Leicester pin hopes on £75m Maguire to stay
Leicester City are confident that Harry Maguire will be committed to the club next season should Manchester United, or any other interested party, fail to reach their valuation on the England international of more than £75million.
The 26-year-old defender has trained well during the club’s first pre-season trip in France and has not shown any sign that he would try to force a move by downing tools. He is expected to be part of the match-day squad for a friendly against Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park tomorrow and there has been no hint of him being disruptive among his team-mates.
The current impasse is that United see the player as being worth between £50million and £60million – a valuation that Leicester feel is much too low, especially given the £50million fee that was paid by the Old Trafford club for the relatively inexperienced Aaron Wanbissaka. United know that they have to raise the potential fee to £75 million to get Leicester to the negotiating table, but so far have chosen not to go as high as that.
It is understood that Maguire would like a move to United, or Manchester City were they to come back into the bidding, but that he understands Leicester’s position and would not be a thorn in the side of the club were it not to happen.
It simply requires United, or City, to improve their offer and that will be the defining factor – regardless of the enthusiasm of third parties to make the move happen.
Maguire signed a new contract with Leicester last season after the World Cup finals and has four years left to run on his current deal. He is playing a full part in Leicester’s preseason programme, which ramps up again this week with an intensive workload as well as tomorrow’s game and a second against Cheltenham Town on Saturday.
One player who could be on his way out of Old Trafford is Romelu Lukaku, who said after United’s 2-0 win over Perth Glory at the Optus Stadium on Saturday that he expected his future to become clearer this week. Inter Milan are eager to sign Lukaku after coach Antonio Conte, the former Chelsea manager, identified the Belgium striker as his primary transfer target. Giuseppe Marotta, the Italian club’s chief executive, believes a deal could be struck. “Lukaku? Yes, I am optimistic about everything,” he said.
United are due to face Inter in Singapore on Saturday, but Lukaku is waiting to see if there is progress before then. Inter hope to sell Mauro Icardi to Juventus to free up cash to fund a deal. Icardi left Inter’s training camp in Lugano over the weekend to return to Milan and will not travel with the squad on their Asia tour. United want to make a profit on Lukaku and are likely to demand around £90million.
United’s new signings, Wan-bissaka and Daniel James, made their debuts against Perth. Marcus Rashford opened the scoring from Paul Pogba’s back-heel before James Garner added a second late on.
Wan-bissaka knows there will be plenty of scrutiny of him following his move from Crystal Palace, but he said former team-mate Wilfried Zaha, who made a similar move in 2013, had offered advice. “When he knew that I joined he just told me to play without fear,” Wan-bissaka said. “He said, ‘Just play your game and do what you did last season.’”