Harry Maguire should leave Manchester United – Jaap Stam | Goal.com UK

Former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam has urged the club’s current captain Harry Maguire to call time on his stay at Old Trafford.

England international Maguire has suffered a prolonged dip in form since the arrival of coach Erik ten Hag, with his struggles to adapt to the Dutchman’s style of play seeing the England international now regularly warming the substitutes’ bench.

And three-time Premier League champion Stam, who helped United to a UEFA Champions League crown during his stay, thinks Maguire’s time is up.

“If I was Maguire, looking at him and how it’s working out for him, or how it’s going this season, I would have said [he should leave], and I think that’s best for him as well because he needs to play,” Stam said. “You’re at a certain age that you want to play, you need to play football. It seems like Ten Hag doesn’t always believe in Maguire. I think the best thing to do is to go somewhere where you can play week in, week out.”

Former Dutch international Stam was speaking to Adam Catterall on the debut episode of Full Circle, presented by Bet365.

And Stam himself knows what it’s like to leave a club the size of United due to differences with a manager.

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He joined United from PSV in 1998 in what he labelled the “greatest moment” of his career, but was shown the door by Sir Alex Ferguson just three years later after falling out with his boss over the release of a controversial autobiography.

“That was a very low point… The book deal of course was a big part of that,” Stam revealed. “I could have stayed, of course, I could have said to the club that I don’t want to leave.

“Eventually, I might play again, but the manager at that time went with different players… I would be on the bench. And he knew with my mentality, and the type of player I was, that I always wanted to play.”

Watch Jaap Stam’s full interview on Full Circle below