Man United may need to pay Harry Maguire £10 million to leave – Man United News And Transfer News

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Manchester United may need to pay off Harry Maguire in order for his transfer to West Ham to be completed.

According to Chris Wheeler (Daily Mail), West Ham are yet to “agree personal terms” with the centre half despite other sources indicating these talks would not prove problematic.

Wheeler contends, furthermore, that United may even be required to pay Maguire a sum worth in the region of £10 million to ensure his departure from Old Trafford.

This figure is thought to be related to Maguire’s costly wages, worth in excess of £180,000 a week, and the two years remaining on his contract.

West Ham were reported to have agreed a fee for the English international worth £30 million; a more than reasonable fee for a player who will turn 31 this season and is firmly down the pecking order in the United squad.

Reports earlier in the summer had revealed a figure of roughly £26 million was the threshold for a good offer, from United’s perspective, for their former captain.

Due to Maguire’s transfer from Leicester – worth nearly £80 million – being amortised across his six year contract, the centre-half accounts for a cost of £13 million per year from a Financial Fair Play (FFP) perspective. If United were to sell him this summer for a fee less than £26 million this would count negatively towards their balance sheet.

The fact West Ham are offering £30 million as a transfer fee satisfies this financial requirement, with United’s prospective £10 million payoff – to cover Maguire’s reduced wage packet at his new club – being a potential FFP loophole.

The reported fee may, therefore, not be quite the coup for United it had initially seemed.

Rather, it represents an internal acceptance by the club there is no longer a place for one of the most expensive players in their history; a player who never adapted to the pressure of Old Trafford and never seemed to recover from that strange night in Greece.

David Moyes is said to be extremely keen to add Maguire to his defensive ranks, going as far as reportedly offering him the vacant West Ham captaincy as part of the courting process. Maguire is also acutely aware of the impact his exclusion from the United team may have on his England prospects; a problem he would not face at West Ham.

West Ham want Maguire and, seemingly, Maguire is slowly growing to want West Ham. A deal feels the best outcome for every party involved, including United’s finance department.