Journalist reveals the unbelievable reason NUFC turned down Harry Maguire last summer

According to the Daily Mail, Rafa Benitez wanted to sign Harry Maguire from a relegated Hull City back in 2017 – however the club deemed the centre-back ‘not good enough’ for the Premier League.

I know what you’re thinking – he cost Leicester £17m so he was never a realistic target for us – but the idea that Benitez was overruled, being told he was ‘not good enough’ stinks of the sort of thing that was going on when Keegan was in charge.

Not only have they been proved woefully wrong, with Maguire now an England regular, it’s another example where the club just refuse to speculate to accumulate under Ashley.

He may have broke our transfer record, but just look at him now – he’s no doubt worth three times the £17m Leicester paid.

Here’s the snippet from Craig Hope’s piece in The Mail, confirming that he was on our radar until Rafa was told he wasn’t good enough:

“Newcastle, meanwhile, had Jacob Murphy on the bench, a £12m player who has started just 15 times and scored once in 14 months on Tyneside.

“Then there is Harry Maguire, scorer of Leicester’s second from a wicked Maddison corner. He was on Newcastle’s radar when Hull were relegated last year but deemed not good enough, especially at £17m. Maguire was the best player on the pitch.”

It’s not quite as bad the Modric story, but it’s yet another tale that has come back to bite Mike Ashley on the backside.

Yes we signed Florian Lejeune that summer, a player who looks to be a terrific buy for half the price, however bargains are not found so easily in this day and age.

Ashley’s inability to spend over £14m has cost us – with this perfectly highlighted by our total lack of quality in attacking areas.

More often than not, you get what you pay for; especially in a market where nothing tends to come cheap.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

One thought on “Journalist reveals the unbelievable reason NUFC turned down Harry Maguire last summer

  1. It was never about his abilty as a premier league defender.
    It’s clearly about the price NUFC would have had to fork out to buy McGuire & nothing else?!!!
    We are the Aldi of the premier league, no quality but all about the bargain!!!

      (Quote)

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