Marcos Rojo has alleged that Harry Maguire was regularly selected by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer due to his high transfer fee, rather than his performances on the pitch.
Maguire was signed by Manchester United in 2019 for a fee of over £80m, beating off competition from Manchester City. However, he has come under scrutiny from supporters and rivals during his three seasons as a starter and has recently been replaced by Erik ten Hag as the team’s manager.
Rojo in an interview with TyC Sports recalled a disagreement with Solskjaer over Maguire’s poor form in his debut season, but being told that 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.
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“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.
“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’.”
Just six months into Maguire’s first season at United, Rojo left the team and joined Estudiantes on loan due to injuries that plagued his half-season, having only played in three Premier League games.
Despite his poor form, Maguire played every minute of his first league season at United and was on track to repeat that feat before an injury caused him to miss the final four games of the 2020/21 season.
Maguire remained a regular under Solskjaer’s replacement, Ralf Rangnick, and even started the first two games under new manager Ten Hag. However, after heavy losses to Brighton and Brentford, Maguire was dropped to the bench as Ten Hag opted for his preferred partnership of Martinez and Raphael Varane.