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Marcos Rojo reveals ‘son of a b***h’ argument with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over Harry Maguire.
Former Manchester United centre-back Marcos Rojo claims that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was obliged to play Harry Maguire every week due to his exorbitant price tag.
United beat off stiff competition from Manchester City in acquiring Maguire from Leicester in 2019, spending more than £80 million to do so.
Maguire, on the other hand, has experienced severe criticism from fans and competitors alike since then and has been relegated by new manager Erik Ten Hag after three seasons as a starter.
Speaking to TyC Sports, Rojo recalled an incident in Maguire’s debut season in which he clashed with then-manager Solskjser over the Englishman’s poor form, only to be told 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.
“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’.”
Only six months into Maguire’s first season, Rojo ultimately left United. He later joined Argentinian team Estudiantes on loan in January after making three Premier League appearances during a half-season marred by injuries.
When Maguire joined United, he played every minute of his debut league season, and he was on course to repeat it until an injury forced him to miss the final four games of the 2020–21 season.
When Ralf Rangnick took over as manager after Solskjaer was fired in November of the year after, Maguire continued to play often, and Ten Hag even started the Englishman in his first two games.
However, after crushing losses to Brighton and Brentford, Maguire was quickly dropped to the sidelines as Ten Hag formed his ideal partnership with Martinez and Raphael Varane.