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Troy Deeney says Harry Maguire’s agent contacted him after comments about the player

Published 16:37 24 Jan 2023 GMT

Updated 17:17 24 Jan 2023 GMT

Troy Deeney says Harry Maguire’s agent contacted him after comments about the player

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"He said, 'You wouldn’t say any of this to Harry’s face’."

Troy Deeney has said that Harry Maguire's agent contacted him after he spoke about the Manchester United captain on talkSPORT. Birmingham City striker Deeney appeared as a pundit on the broadcasters in 2020 and mentioned Maguire when speaking about the leadership issues in the Man United squad. Deeney said that this led to Maguire's agent contacting him and speaking in an 'aggressive' manner attempting to defend his client.

The former Watford skipper said that Maguire's agent called his mobile phone while the player was preparing for training and rebuked him for his comments. "I had an incident with Harry Maguire when I was at Watford, his agent called me," Deeney said on Fozcast, the podcast hosted by former Man United goalkeeper Ben Foster. "I spoke about Man United and the leadership and how it’s not just (Paul) Pogba because it was Pogba getting battered early doors. "I said, 'What about the leadership’? What about Maguire? What about David de Gea? What about all the senior guys, why is it always Pogba? That’s it, that’s all I said. "I get to training, phone’s ringing with this number I don’t know. Two or three times this number calls so I think, 'God there must be a problem here.' "I picked it up and it was Harry Maguire’s agent saying, 'You can’t say this, you can’t do that, you wouldn’t say any of this to Harry’s face'."

Deeney said that he stood his ground with the agent and pushed back before contacting Maguire. According to Deeney, the England defender had no idea that the agent had phoned him. "I said, 'Hang on one second, let’s rewind. I have said this, I didn’t say that, but I would say it to Harry’s face, I’ve got no problem," the pundit said. "Let me call him now, and I’ll come back to you.' I don’t think he knew I had his number. I called him (Maguire) and he’s got no clue what’s going on.

"I phoned the agent back and said, 'Look, with the greatest respect, please don’t phone my phone giving it the big one because I’m not that guy and you’ll have a problem you don’t want.' "To be fair to Harry, he said the same thing. He was like, 'I don’t know what all that’s about'," Deeney continued. "I said, 'Look mate, it’s not a problem, but the way he phoned and the aggression he was having, a younger me would’ve taken that a lot more personally. Come on, this is what I’ve said, I’ll tell you to your face, I’ve got no problem'." You can watch Deeney speak about the incident below.