Former Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo has lashed out at former teammate Harry Maguire. Between 2014 and 2021, the Argentine, 33, was at Old Trafford for seven years. However, he only made one Premier League start under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019/20.
This was due to the fact that Maguire cost the club £80 million, making him the most expensive defender of all time. And he was promoted to the starting lineup at the cost of Rojo. After nearly four years, Harry Maguire, now the club captain, has been dropped from the lineup following Erik ten Hag’s arrival, with Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane the preferred pair.
Rojo opens up on X-rated chat with Solskjaer over Harry Maguire’s starting role
Rojo has lashed out at Harry Maguire, claiming that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer only played him since he cost £80 million to United, who signed the England international from Leicester City in the summer of 2019. The Argentine defender, who lost his starting spot to Maguire in the 2019-20 season, unleashed an X-rated rant on Solskjaer, questioning why the Englishman was starting despite making ‘mistakes every week.’
Prior to United’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham, Rojo expressed his delight that his countryman Lisandro Martinez has forced Harry Maguire out of the starting lineup this season. He told Tyc Sports:
“In 2019 I was playing in the Europa League, but I was really angry with the Manchester coach [Solskjaer] because he was putting Maguire [in the team] instead of me, who thank god finally they 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 the other club or put [me] in the starting line-up, but he told me that Maguire had to play yes or yes because of the money they paid for him.
“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’.”
United made Harry Maguire the world’s most expensive defender when they signed him for £80 million. This pushed Rojo, who joined the club under Louis van Gaal in 2014, down the pecking order at center-back. During the 2019-20 season, Solskjaer used Rojo in United’s Europa League group games but only started him once in the Premier League before the Argentine was injured.
Solskjaer accepted Rojo’s demand and loaned him out to Estudiantes in his birthplace in January 2020. A year later, Rojo departed United to join Boca Juniors on a permanent basis. Back in his homeland, the Argentina FA suspended the 33-year-old from captaining Boca Juniors for a month in September after he kicked an opposing player in the head during a Superclasico against River Plate.
Meanwhile, Martinez’s arrival last summer forced Maguire out of Erik ten Hag’s United line-up, and his future with the club is uncertain. His most recent outing came in United’s 3-0 defeat to Sevilla last week, which sent them out of the UEFA Europa League. The captain of United was left out of Thursday night’s 2-2 draw at Tottenham Hotspur, in which they surrendered a two-goal lead.