According to Sky Sports journalist Lyall Thomas in a recent appearance on the Last Word on Spurs, Harry Maguire had admirers at Tottenham Hotspur before joining Leicester City but Mauricio Pochettino didn’t rate him enough.
Manchester United signed Maguire in 2019 for a fee reported to be £80m (BBC Sport) and the England defender enjoyed a fairly successful start to life with the Red Devils. He was even made captain of the club in 2020.
The 29-year-old has 157 appearances to his name for Manchester United now (Transfermarkt) but things have not been going to plan over the last 12 months for Maguire.
Poor form at club level has seen him fall down the pecking order under new manager Erik ten Hag and there are rumours Maguire may even leave the club.
Maguire has reportedly been told he can leave Manchester United (Express) and a potential move to Tottenham has been mooted by both Ally McCoist (TalkSport) and Jamie O’Hara (TalkSport).
Now, it turns out Spurs could have had Maguire on their books years ago, but the manager at the time Pochettino didn’t think he was a good fit for his side.
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Lyall Thomas said: “I thought you would like to know and I may have mentioned this before. Back when he was at Hull and he was moving to Leicester there were some reports that Tottenham wanted to sign him.
“There was some interest from people at the club then, but what I knew at the time was that Pochettino didn’t rate him at that point, he didn’t think he was the right defender for him, he didn’t think he could play the ball well enough for him.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Who knows what would have happened had we signed Maguire way back when. I know he’s had a bad time at Manchester United of late, but I still think Maguire has what it takes to be a top defender at club level and I would probably take him at Spurs right now. His experience cannot be underestimated.
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