By Wayne Veysey

16th Jul, 2023 | 7:21am

Sources: West Ham lead Newcastle United in race to sign Harry Maguire

West Ham lead Newcastle United in the race to sign Man United star Harry Maguire, sources have told Football Insider.

The future of the centre-back, 30, is up in the air as United look to raise cash for new signings and he is among the senior players the are willing to let go.

West Ham have registered their interest in a deal for Maguire, with David Moyes keen on bringing in another centre-back.

The Irons have climbed above Newcastle, who have been trailing the England international all summer, while former suitors Aston Villa are no longer interested following the signing of Pau Torres.

The major stumbling block for buying clubs is that Maguire is on a huge United salary worth around £190,000-a-week and that still has two more years to run.

That is outside of both West Ham and Newcastle’s salary structure, and he would need to take a pay cut to complete a permanent move.

United are willing to sell Maguire at a massive loss, and will take less than half of the £80million they paid to Leicester City for him in 2019. A bid of around £35m could be enough to convince them to sell.

As for the player himself., Football Insider revealed on Friday (16 June) that he is keen to impress in pre-season at Man United despite his lack of involvement in the 2022-23 campaign.

It is believed Maguire remains happy at Old Trafford despite slipping down Erik ten Hag’s pecking order since the Dutchman’s arrival.

The England international could slip down the ranks even further if Man United are successful in adding a top-class centre-back this summer.

Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof and even natural left-back Luke Shaw have been preferred to Maguire under Erik ten Hag.

In other news, West Ham told to complete ‘£25m’ signing that will be ‘amazing’.