England manager Gareth Southgate has confessed Harry Maguire may find himself forced to make a decision on his Manchester United.
Of course, that’s if Maguire plans to remain as part of the England squad moving forward because Southgate cannot guarantee minutes to a player who is not a regular for his club.
Southgate has consistently defended Maguire and has shown the centre-back plenty of faith at international level. On top of that, Maguire has performed well for his country, rarely letting the Three Lions down.
“We’re not in a world where we’re cuddling,” Southgate told talkSPORT. “It’s a tough world, professional football.
“It doesn’t baffle me as they have two top players in Varane and Martinez there. You will always be challenged, they will sign top players every year. If you’re Man United you want good back-up, you get injuries, you’ve got Champions League, you want to push for the Premier League. They will be comfortable with Harry staying as back-up and being in the team. If he’s not in the team he’s got a decision to make whether he wants to get regular football elsewhere. Top players want to play every week.
“It depends on how players at other clubs are doing. I can never guarantee a player we will pick them. He and John Stones has been a partnership that’s been brilliant for us, but we’ve got young centre-backs coming up who are getting that experience and that will be the challenge going forward.”
Southgate named Chelsea’s Levi Colwill, Man City’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi as potential threats to Maguire for a place in the England team.
“We went there to get to know the players better,” he explained. “I thought Harwood-Bellis and Colwill both were very good. One in the Championship, Levi at Brighton.
“Now can [Colwill] get into Chelsea’s first team? He’s a very good player. It’s interesting with Marc Guehi coming up as well, we need that competition.”
The centre-back managed 31 club appearances last season. Just eight of those were starts in the Premier League.
Should Maguire remain at United, he is likely to see limited minutes behind Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw. Maybe even Jonny Evans too.
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