There were few positives from Manchester United's 2024-25 season, but Harry Maguire was one of them

New York Times

a day ago

In a season where Manchester United finished a disappointing 15th in the Premier League, amassing just 42 points – both their worst in the Premier League era – and failed to lift silverware after getting beaten 1-0 by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final, there were few positives to take from their campaign.
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The obvious bright spot was captain Bruno Fernandes, who has been the standout performer for United ever since he joined the club in January 2020. But Fernandes aside, there were others who showed resilience and made significant contributions during a tough year for the club.
On the latest episode of Talk of the Devils, our End of Season Awards show, Ian Irving, Laurie Whitwell, Andy Mitten, and Carl Anka discussed Harry Maguire's remarkable turnaround and why he can leave the 2024-25 season with his head held high.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available to listen to via the Talk of the Devils feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Ian: Of course, the 2024-25 season will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons. The worst finish in United's Premier League history, the salvation of an unbeaten run in the Europa League, which then ended in a drab defeat in the final. One manager, one caretaker boss, one head coach, a revolving door of executives, missions, projects, and rafts of redundancies.
Quite frankly, we're just glad it's over. But we are going to look back at it today in our end-of-season awards show, and we're going to get started with the Player of the Season award (who isn't Bruno). Laurie, who's your pick for this?
Laurie: I'm picking this player because I think you just have to give him his props, for me it's Harry Maguire. How can you turn down a guy who gave us that moment against Lyon? A guy who's come through the most acute and sustained critique from fans of Manchester United and England. A guy who's come through abuse, almost. He was booed on United's pre-season tour a couple of years ago, and questioned on why he was even at the club. And when he had the opportunity to leave, he said, 'No, I want to stay.' He's handled himself with the kind of character that you need from somebody who has worn the Manchester United armband. And maybe he still doesn't totally suit what Ruben Amorim's trying to do, because I think he wants defenders who push up and are aggressive – even though he was pushed all the way up to centre forward a few times during the season.
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But I just think he carries himself so well, and it triumphed with that moment against Lyon. He then backed it up with the Maradona impression in Bilbao, and took all that with the humour in which it was intended. He was asked about it in the pre-final press conference, and some would get a bit offended about this idea that they're not a very good footballer. But instead he sort of said, 'Ruben Amorim has been telling me to dribble more in training,' so he rolled with it. That just showed the kind of person he is. And to come back from where he was, to then have such a good run for United shows his character. It could have been glorious if that Lyon goal provided the platform for a Europa League win, so it's bittersweet in that sense. But I still think that moment holds for the emotion that it created, and it will be remembered for years to come.
Ian: Andy, you couldn't have nodded any more to Laurie's statements there, what are your thoughts?
Andy: I was just thinking it's the first time I've agreed with absolutely everything that Laurie's said since the first day I met him. But in all seriousness, it's spot-on and he's totally right. There have been times when the abuse was so pernicious and targeted towards him, that the fact that he's withstood that is absolutely to his credit. No footballer should have to put up with the stick that he had to deal with, it went so far beyond the pale. I think people can accept when you're playing poorly, and they might not rate you if you've had a bad game, but some of it went too far.
Carl: He had to call the authorities because a bomb threat was called to his house. I do sometimes feel uneasy when people say, 'With all the things that Harry Maguire has been through,' without explicitly pointing out what it was. There was a point in time when more or less every single action Maguire did on a football field was derided and turned into memes.
I remember there were some very well-known, prominent former professional football players who frankly just used various expletives to describe him as a football player. And you're sitting there going, 'Is this appropriate? Is this a good way to get this person out of their obvious funk?' So all credit to him. Because he's been through things that I don't think many football players will ever go through, thankfully. And I hope most football players will never have to go through that. But he's come out the other side, and even though he doesn't wear the armband anymore, he's absolutely a leader in that dressing room. You saw that in the games against Lyon and Athletic Club, so he's definitely got value to Manchester United.
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Andy: Harry's mum and dad also go to more games than I think any other family member, and it's lovely to see. These are working-class people from a village just outside Sheffield whose son has done really well, and all three of their sons are football players. It's great bumping into them in places like Bilbao 10 minutes after he's just dribbled down the right wing, and they're like, 'Did you see that?' In a proper Yorkshire accent too, that I'm not even going to try and do.
But to have that light moment after the stick that he's gone through is amazing. I've bumped into them in airports after European games when he's not been getting any minutes, and it must be horrible as a parent. And I don't buy this line at all, that they get paid a fortune. I'm sorry, it just doesn't make a difference with some of the abuse that he's gotten. So I think you're absolutely right, Laurie, and full credit to him.
Remember, you can listen to full episodes of Talk of the Devils on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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