Harry Maguire ‘insulted’ by West Ham United bid amid possible Manchester United transfer ‘bluff’
Harry Maguire feels “insulted” by West Ham making a “lowball” bid to sign him this summer, Manchester United “insiders” have reportedly told Claret & Hugh.
The Hammers-focused outlet reported on their website Friday (4 August) that the £20million offered from the London Stadium for the 30-year-old centre-back has left both the player and his club unimpressed.
The asking price at Old Trafford is reported to be £35m for the £200,000-a-week England international, and while he is aware that they might be “bluffing” over that fee since they want to shift him he thinks he’s worth more than what the Irons have put on the table.
A Carrington-based source reportedly told C&H: “It’s not just United who think West Ham’s current offer is low-ball, Harry sees other players moving for far bigger sums, without half his experience and pedigree.
“He knows United want him out and may be bluffing over his price, but even Harry thinks he is worth more than £20m – especially to someone like David Moyes who needs a centre-half in quickly and knows he is road-tested in the Premier League.”
Offended
If Manchester United are indeed “bluffing” over the price then it would make little sense for West Ham to plow in and pay over the odds for a player who appears to have diminishing prospects under Erik ten Hag.
He has already had the captaincy taken off him and, although he did suffer with injuries, has fallen behind at least Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez under the Dutchman.
On the other hand, the Irons have made a habit this summer of getting nowhere near what clubs apparently want in order to let go of players this summer and then making little progress thereafter.
It is no doubt true that after very publicly getting Arsenal to commit to £100m guaranteed for Declan Rice selling clubs are now upping their prices to deal with West Ham.
But the club at least needs to get close enough to entice them to compromise rather than coming in with offers that are around half of the mooted price and being quickly rejected, as also happened with James Ward-Prowse at Southampton.
Whether it is the effect of Tim Steidten not actually wanting these older Premier League veterans that Moyes is going for or not, if West Ham are going to bother making offers they need to show enough willingness to get sellers to the negotiating table or they might as well discount some targets altogether.
In other West Ham news, the club are getting “increasingly desperate” amid transfer failures and have pulled an “extremely rare” move in order to land £140m worth of business.