Harry Maguire to Everton talk fuelled by a three-day-old tweet from a nobody

Editor F365
Harry Maguire and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Harry Maguire has been the subject of a ‘blow’ this week but also a hell of a story from a Manchester United Twitter newcomer…

 

All news is bad news
Manchester United beat Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night, which means the back pages are adorned with pictures of the bloody lovely and really quite excellent footballer Marcus Rashford.

But positivity really doesn’t generate clicks so what’s the top story on the Mirror website on Thursday morning?

‘NO ROOM FOR HARRY: Martinez hails Lindelof as preferred Man Utd centre-back partners clear in Maguire blow’

Yes, the biggest story to emerge from Manchester United putting one foot in a major final with a goal from European football’s in-form striker is definitely that Lisandro Martinez likes playing with Lindelof and that means there is now ‘NO ROOM’ for a footballer who has played fewer Premier League minutes this season than Anthony Elanga.

Oh and he was suspended on Wednesday night. Though the Mirror were not the only ones left like pigs in muck by that realisation…

So what is this ‘Maguire blow’ if it’s not ‘being suspended from a game he might actually have started’?

‘Lisandro Martinez believes he forms a complimentary central defensive partnership with Victor Lindelof at Manchester United in the absence of Raphael Varane.’

That would be ‘complementary’. Because we absolutely know that a central defensive partnership between Martinez and Lindelof did not come for free. Indeed, every central defensive partnership at Manchester United cost, and this is a technical term, a f*** of a lot.

So what did Martinez say that was such a ‘Maguire blow’?

“I think we showed many good things, but still, we have a lot to improve. It’s a good result, I think we controlled the game today. In training, we [him and Lindelof] work with each other and I think we’re doing a really good job.”

That is indeed a massive punch in the nuts for Maguire. Maybe he needs to have another ‘private chat’ with Martinez.

 

X-men
Elsewhere on the same football homepage after Manchester United’s really quite impressive win…

‘Erik ten Hag responds to Antony and Bruno Fernandes rumours after furious X-rated row’ – He ‘responded’ on Tuesday to a ‘row’ over a week ago but why let that get in the way of some rampant opportunism?

 

Sol searching
But let’s return to Harry Maguire and the rumours of an exit from Manchester United and the rather convenient timing of Everton needing a new manager.

‘Everton considering ex-Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as new manager… ‘who demands two transfers from old club”

And one of those transfers is obviously Harry Maguire, whose name appears in the URL of The Sun story.

Is this an exclusive from The Sun? Is it balls, it’s a chop-and-shop ‘reportedly’ classic.

So who said this?

‘But he could be set for a return to the Premier League after holding talks with Everton, according to Fabrizio Romano.

‘Everton are reportedly impressed with the rebuild Solskjaer oversaw at United, qualifying for the Champions League twice and finishing as runners-up in the Europa League.

‘But Solskjaer, 49, is demanding the Toffees strengthen the squad before he agrees to take over.

‘The former striker wants Everton to sign United captain Harry Maguire and his midfield team-mate Scott McTominay.’

No link. And no sign anywhere on the internet that Romano has said anything about Solskjaer and Maguire barring multiple mentions in various Sun blogs and stories.

So Mediawatch turned to Twitter and found what we believe is the source…

So that’s an account with 160 followers with a tweet – posted three days ago – viewed over 170,000 times. And that was their very first tweet. Quite an entry to Twitter and clearly a load of absolute old bollocks.

It was so successful that the very next day they went again with more juicy information.

And that was enough to fuel a story on The Sun website three days later. This shit is easy if you know how.

 

A message to you, rudie
We know we are basically old men shouting at the clouds now but this is an absolute disgrace…

‘Man Utd star Wout Weghorst has sent a message to Piers Morgan after Nottingham Forest win’ – Express website.

We would forgive him he did – after all, Morgan likened him to an ‘Austrian sausage’ – but what he actually did was ‘score a goal’.

And this, in the f***ed-up language of 2023 is ‘sending a message’.

‘The forward has now shown Morgan, and the rest of the world, exactly what he’s capable of.

‘This was the 30-year-old at his best on Wednesday night, with the forward producing his finest display since his arrival from Burnley on loan.’

Even better than his literal only other game for Manchester United? A big call. And an even bigger ‘message’.

 

Why DO the flowers keep on growing?
Over at MailOnline, they are posing all the big questions in their usual very lengthy and occasionally shouty way…

‘Oleksandr Zinchenko is reinventing the left-back role having become the key cog in Arsenal’s unlikely Premier League title push… so, why DID Pep Guardiola let him leave Man City?’

If we gloss over the ‘reinventing the left-back role’ nonsense – can you reinvent something you have been doing elsewhere for years? – then we should just answer the question posed.

There are two reasons. One is that Zinchenko started only ten Premier League games last season and secondly – and this is not unrelated – is that he wanted to leave. And that really is key. After five years spent largely as a back-up at City, the 25-year-old Zinchenko simply wanted to leave.

As Pep Guardiola said literally this week: “When they want to leave they cannot stay.”

We would ask more questions if Guardiola blocked the exit of a back-up player who wanted to leave despite his asking price being met. And then the capitals might even be justified.

 

WHY ARE THEY SHOUTING?

Should they have punished him instead?

Manchester United Harry Maguire

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