Harry Maguire is everything Man United wanted in a captain … so his arrest came as a surprise

When Manchester United named Harry Maguire as their new captain in January, he was the standout candidate for the job.

It was one of those obvious choices. The club’s new £ 80 million signing had already worn the armband several times in place of Ashley Young of Milan and was just the thing for her.

Maguire is a combative center-back in the form of former United skippers Steve Bruce and Nemanja Vidic. He’s a player who sets a good example and commands the respect of his teammates.

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire is a player who sets an example for his teammates

Maguire was discovered when he was taken to a Greek police station after his arrest in Mykonos

A senior professional aged 27 and an established England international. In fact, it’s almost the last person you’d expect to find in the kind of chaos that got Maguire and his friends into trouble in Mykonos.

Exactly what happened in the wee hours of the morning outside of a Fabrika bar will undoubtedly become known in time, although friends of the player insisted on Friday night that the entire episode is “out of character”.

At this point it would be inappropriate to judge Maguire or the other two men who were arrested after the alleged Fracas and who spent the rest of the night in a police cell.

But nothing in Maguire’s past on or off the field suggests that he is the type of person who is normally involved in this type of incident.

Maguire’s arrest is atypical and this incident took several people by surprise

He has been pictured with fiancée Fern Hawkins, mother of his two young children, on the Greek island for the past few days, and everything seemed fine on the trip with family and friends.

However, Premier League footballers are some of the most famous people in the world. So it’s a little surprising that at the end of a season spanning more than a year, Maguire hasn’t chosen a quieter place than Mykonos due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He played 55 games for United and another six for England – a total of 5,502 minutes, more than any other player in Europe.

Maguire (right, pictured in Mykonos) has not chosen a quiet place for his vacation

There is only a short two week window of vacation before the United players train for the new campaign again, not to mention the additional requirements of the Nations League opening games in England at the start of another long season that ends with the European Championship.

It’s an unprecedented time in football, but the absence of fans over the past few months has given those of us who have access to United games an even better insight into Maguire’s leadership in empty stadiums where every call and instruction is too is heard.

When United needed an ambassador figure to face the media in Belgrade before taking on Partizan in October, only for fear of further problems just 10 days after Maguire witnessed the horrific racist abuse against English players in Bulgaria, they turned to him.

Maguire – the most expensive English footballer of all time – spoke with conviction and authority that evening at Partizan Stadium, pledging to take the ultimate action and get his players off the field if they were mistreated despite being three months away officially appointed club captain.

The center-back was named captain just months after joining Man United from Leicester City

Those close to Maguire admit that he was surprised Ole handed the armband to Gunnar Solskjaer so early in his United career after arriving from Leicester last summer.

England boss Gareth Southgate is also said to be a big fan. Friends describe his goal against Sweden in the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup as life changing and point out that he has turned down commercial opportunities to focus on his career.

When Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson developed a #playerstogether campaign to raise money for the NHS, Maguire was the first one he called.

During the lockdown, he also started his own initiative to provide food boxes for the elderly and vulnerable in the Mosborough area of ​​Sheffield where he grew up.

Maguire is also a major England international, joining United last year for £ 80million

Friends speak of a sane person who is the opposite of a hot head. Maguire has only been sent off four times in his senior career – once since April 2013.

His disciplinary record at United is good, save for an incident against Chelsea in February which could have earned a red card when he planted his bolts in Michy Batshuayi’s groin.

All of this will matter very little if Maguire is responsible for what happened in Mykonos.