Manchester United had hopes of selling former captain Harry Maguire this summer. However after his move broke down, the interested party have now signed an alternative.
Harry Maguire’s move to the London Stadium really did seem nailed on earlier this month when a fee was agreed.
The England international was due to complete the move in what would have seen Manchester United recoup around £30million of his ludicrous £80m transfer fee.
The move seemed nailed on, with West Ham striker Michail Antonio even suggesting publicly that the 30-year-old should join the Hammers.
David Moyes had even confirmed a bid was accepted, all for Maguire to turn down the move in favour of collecting his higher wage at United.
Now a deal seems completely off the table with West Ham signing an alternative centre-back in place of Maguire.
West Ham confirm Mavropanos
West Ham look to have moved on from Maguire as they confirm the arrival of Greek international, Konstantinos Mavropanos from VfB Stuttgart.
The defender has prior Premier League experience with Arsenal where he made his debut in 2018, but was shipped off, where he has reinvented himself and returns a far better player.
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The Athens-born defender shares some stylistic similarities with Maguire, however is far more mobile than the Englishman.
This likely puts any hope of a departure out the window for United and Maguire with the Hammers the only interested party to make a move thus far.
This will be a blow for Erik ten Hag, who was clearly keen to sell the English international with multiple new defenders being headhunted as his replacement.
It will also inevitably be a blow for Maguire too when he gets no game-time this season and misses out on the European Championships.
What now for United?
Now it seems Maguire will remain at Old Trafford for this season at least, with little noise around his departure, however a deadline day sale is always on the cards.
United needed to sell in order to sign, with Sofyan Amrabat waiting for United’s bid to arrive.
Despite him likely to stay, United are reportedly pushing on with a deal to sign Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice, according to L’Equipe.
This could come in the form of Dean Henderson who is in talks with Crystal Palace over a potential move, promoting United to trigger the release clause of Altay Bayindir from Fenerbahce.
This sale would free-up some FFP wiggle room for United to potentially bring in a midfielder without have to shift some more deadwood.