Will Harry Maguire And Victor Lindelöf Leave Manchester United This Summer?

Manchester United will be looking to find a solution for a lot of their players out of favour early on in the transfer window by being decisive.

Harry Maguire, the club’s current captain, and Victor Lindelöf, Sweden international, are two players that could potentially find their way out of Old Trafford this summer.

The England international, who still firmly remains in Gareth Southgate’s first choice starting XI, finds himself out of favour at Manchester United. Having played just
just
439 minutes of Premier
PINC
League football this season, it is clear to see that Erik Ten Hag favours Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane as a partnership.

Maguire has been on the receiving end of criticism over the past two years, with fans stating that his lack of mobility and speed has cost him his place in the line-up. There have been some awful mistakes made along the way, but Manchester United, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, were in one of their lowest moments from top to bottom.

Lindelöf, similarly. finds himself sitting on the bench and called upon either in the lesser competitions or as a substitute. Since arriving from SL Benfica in 2017 for £30 million, the central defender’s performances have been, on the whole, consistent. Of course, he is not going to benefit in a side that was extremely low on confidence, but Lindelöf has shown over the years that he can be counted on.

While Manchester United do have other priorities to focus on around the pitch, they might be forced into signing a new centre back should both of Maguire and Lindelöf decide to leave.

For the Englishman, a departure looks inevitable. There is only so much time he is likely to give it to get back into the starting XI under Ten Hag, and it does not appear that he is any closer to usurping Martinez on the left-hand side or Varane on the right.

There is no doubt that Maguire’s best performances have come from when his team are deploying a lower block and there is less space behind him to guard and for strikers to run in behind. Far too many times has he been caught out from this and does not have the recovery speed to get back goal-side and make the effective tackle.

Bought for a world-record fee for a defender, £80 million, Manchester United will be hoping to see half of that coming back to them at Old Trafford. Although he has just turned 30, there is nothing to suggest that a team cannot get another four years out of him operating at a very high level.

For England, Maguire looks far more comfortable and composed. Perhaps his confidence at Manchester United has merely escaped him and he has not been able to recover, or he cannot fit into Ten Hag’s system now, but there is still, quite clearly, a player of quality.

There are rumours of West Ham United, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur all looking at Maguire with the intention of making offers for the summer. It would certainly help sweeten any potential Harry Kane transfer, should that move forward to the next step.

Manchester United fans would rather cash in on Maguire and keep Lindelöf as the understudy to Varane and Martinez, if at all possible. Should both of them leave, the Red Devils will have no choice but to delve into the market given Eric Bailly, Axel Tuanzebe and Phil Jones will also be leaving on permanent transfers at the end of the season.