Five Italian clubs offer ‘respectable’ Man Utd flop a much-needed lifeline as West Ham watch on

Five Italian clubs are interested in signing out-of-favour Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire this summer, according to reports.

The England international has been linked with a departure for some time and was recently relinquished of the Man Utd captaincy by Erik ten Hag.

This is despite the manager allegedly telling Maguire that he is happy to keep him for another season.

In reality, though, Man Utd are looking to generate as much money as possible from player sales and Maguire is one of the players they are willing to let go. Now, several clubs, including West Ham, are queuing up to sign him.

Since joining Man Utd for a record-breaking £80m fee in 2019, the defender has made 175 appearances across all competitions.

Despite being a key player at times for the Red Devils, he has fallen behind the likes of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez in the pecking order. He played just 16 Premier League matches last season.

As a result, a move away from Old Trafford may be the best thing for him.

As mentioned, West Ham have enquired about signing Maguire this summer. Man Utd reportedly want around £35m, but an even bigger problem could be his wages.

Maguire currently earns an eye-watering £190,000-per-week with the Red Devils. This could potentially make a loan exit more likely for the defender.

Now, according to Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport, he has been ‘approached’ by five major Serie A teams.

The clubs are said to be Juventus, Napoli, Roma, Milan and Inter. All of those clubs consider Maguire to be a ‘respectable’ defender, despite his recent struggles in a Man Utd shirt.

The report claims that the Italian clubs want to avoid paying his wage in full by signing him on loan this summer, with the option to buy in 2024. This would give one of them a year to come up with the necessary money to sign Maguire permanently.

In a somewhat similar situation, Chris Smalling ditched Man Utd for Roma in 2019 and has since reignited his career in Italy.

Another pull factor for the five clubs could be a recent rule change regarding English and Swiss players in the Serie A.

Players from those two countries are now considered as equivalent to those from the EU, meaning Italian teams will not have to use up their two non-EU squad places on English stars.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if Man Utd agree to a loan-to-buy offer from one of the aforementioned Italian sides this summer. That is, of course, if West Ham fail to agree terms with the Red Devils for Maguire.

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