Former Manchester United centre-back Marcos Rojo has claimed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was forced to play Harry Maguire every week because of the Englishman’s high price tag.
United fought off serious competition from Manchester City to sign Maguire from Leicester in 2019, parting with over £80m to get a deal done.
Since then, however, Maguire has faced significant criticism from fans and rivals alike and, after three seasons as a starter, has been demoted by new manager Erik ten Hag.
Speaking to TyC Sports, Rojo recalled an incident in Maguire’s debut season in which he clashed with then-manager Solskjser over the Englishman’s poor form, only to be told there was nothing that could be done about it.
“That year [the 2019/20 season] I was very good in England, I was playing in the Europa League,” Rojo began. “But I was really angry with the coach because he was playing Maguire instead of me. Thank God they finally took him out from the starting line-up for Licha [Lisandro] Martinez.
“One day I went to Solskjaer’s office to tell him to let me leave for another club or put [me] in the starting line-up. It was wrong that he wasn’t letting me play. He told me: ‘They paid so much for him and he has to play no matter what.
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“He [Maguire] was making huge mistakes already and I told Solskjaer: ‘Son of a b***h let me play, because this guy is making huge mistakes every week’.”
Rojo ultimately left United just six months into Maguire’s first season, joining Argentinian side Estudiantes on loan in January after three Premier League appearances in a half-season which was plagued by injuries.
As for Maguire, he played every minute of his first league season at United and was on track to repeat that feat before an injury cost him the final four games of 2020/21.
Solskjaer was sacked in November of the following season but Maguire would remain a regular under his replacement, Ralf Rangnick, and Ten Hag even started the Englishman for his first two games.
Resounding defeats at the hands of Brighton and Brentford, however, soon saw Maguire demoted to the bench as Ten Hag created his preferred partnership of Martinez and Raphael Varane.
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