Manchester United star Harry Maguire has been accused by former Chelsea and Liverpool defender Glen Johnson of pulling the plug on his proposed move to West Ham over an “embarrassing” belief in his abilities. The England man had been on the verge of sealing a long-awaited exit from Old Trafford, but the £30million deal collapsed late on and he currently remains a United player.

Various reasons were suggested at the time for why the transfer failed to materialise despite the two clubs seeming to have agreed on a fee, which in the modern day typically only happens after the buying club has sounded out personal terms with the player in question.

One was that United felt that they did not have enough time to secure a replacement so late on in the window, but they have already identified three centre-backs after target Benjamin Pavard instead chose to leave Bayern Munich for Inter Milan as United stalled on their interest. Johnson, meanwhile, believes that Maguire himself did not want the move to West Ham to go through.

When asked by Betfred if Johnson thought that Maguire should have completed a move to West Ham, he replied: “Yes, I think he needs to play football and show everybody that he’s still good enough to play for England. If he was confident enough that he would be a success at West Ham, then I believe they would have got the deal done.

“I think he’s worried that he could still play rubbish at West Ham and then the whole situation is even more embarrassing. I think he must be nervous about the move because let’s face it, if your current team doesn’t want you and another Premier League team wants you, then the deal should be relatively easy to do. I just believe he isn’t as confident enough as he should be taking that move.”

Maguire has struggled over the past two years with his drop-off in form resulting in the 30-year-old being frozen out by Erik ten Hag, who instead favours the pairing of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane.