I couldn't believe what West Ham offered for Harry Maguire - it was insulting to Man United

Former West Ham scout Mick Brown has revealed the Hammers proposed an insulting offer for Manchester United defender Harry Maguire back in 2023.

The England international struggled during Erik ten Hag's first season in charge and was tipped to leave after four years at Old Trafford. West Ham made a move for the 31-year-old, but he ended up staying at United, enjoying a more productive season, starting 25 matches across all competitions.

Many felt the arrivals of Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro would push Maguire out of the exit door this summer, but he once again stuck with United and has since made eight appearances this term. Maguire also made the headlines after scoring a stoppage-time equaliser against Porto in the Europa League on Thursday and could return to the United XI for the trip to Aston Villa.

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Speaking to Football Insider, Brown outlined the extend of West Ham's offer for Maguire. He said: "I was at West Ham last year when United were looking to sell Maguire, Scott McTominay and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. I couldn’t believe that they were doing that, and of course we were interested."

Nonetheless, Brown slammed West Ham's lack of guile in negotioations and admitted their efforts to sign Maguire were "insulting" after lodging a £20million bid to sign him.

"But in their wisdom, the West Ham owners went and bid £20m for Maguire," he added. "It was an insulting offer to United. An insult. They were never going to get him for that price."

West Ham instead decided to recruit Konstantinos Mavropanos from Stuttgart and have since signed Max Kilman from Wolves and Jean Clair-Todibo from Nice.

"They didn’t get him in the end, of course, and then they go and pay £40million for Max Kilman this year," Brown added. "I think Kilman's a good player, but when Maguire plays, he’s consistently United's best defender, and he always steps up and performs for England too. I was, and still am, astonished by the treatment he gets."

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