Southgate warns Maguire and names THREE England replacements

Tom Hancock

• Updated: 19 Jun 2023 16:49 BST
• 3 min read

Gareth Southgate has warned Harry Maguire that his England place could be under threat as a new generation of centre-backs comes through.

Despite falling down the pecking order at club level for Manchester United, Maguire has remained a regular for his country, starting Friday’s 4-0 Euro 2024 qualifying win away to Malta.

But his manager has cautioned that competition for spots in the side is on the increase with the next major tournament just a year away.

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Speaking ahead of Monday’s game against North Macedonia at Old Trafford – as England look to make it four wins from four in their qualifying campaign – Southgate said:

“Harry’s shown great resilience and his performance level with us through the season has been very, very good. It’s been challenging for him: he’s captain of a huge, worldwide football club and he’s not been able to play, so that would have been hard.

“We like Marc Guehi; we’ve invested in him. Him and Levi [Colwill are] probably the two youngest [regular centre-backs] in the [Premier League]. For England future that’s good. [I’m] Interested to see [Taylor] Harwood-Bellis in the U21s to see what might happen with him next year.

“Then Lewis Dunk and Tyrone [Mings] had very good second parts of the season. So, [there’s] some competition there and we are very mindful of that.”

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Time for Maguire to move on?

United boss Erik ten Hag tended to prefer Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof at the heart of his back four in 2022/23, and Maguire has been strongly linked with a move away from Old Trafford this summer.

Tottenham and Newcastle have both been touted as potential destinations for the 30-year-old, who joined Man Utd from Leicester City back in 2019 for £80m – which is still a world-record fee for a defender.

Maguire has won 56 caps for England, featuring at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and Euro 2020.