Steve Bruce has revealed how he was pushed by the former Hull City head of recruitment 
Stan Ternent to sign Harry Maguire from Sheffield United in 2014. 


Maguire became the most expensive defender in the world when Manchester United forked out £80m to sign the centre-back from Leicester City last summer.  

 



While Manchester United have struggled for goals this season, the England defender has made them more defensively robust and they have looked more settled at the back with him.

But Bruce, who signed Maguire at Hull, indicated that he was not very hot on signing the defender as he felt that Maguire’s lack of pace could have been a major deficiency in his game.
 


However, the former Manchester United defender revealed that he was convinced into signing him by former Hull head of recruitment Ternent, who was sure about Maguire’s quality.



Bruce told The Athletic: “Stan was relentless over Harry.

“The thing with Harry is he had been playing for Sheffield United since he was 18 and had something like 150 games under his belt (at age 21). He had also been their Player of the Year three years running.
 

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“But people looked at him and asked, ‘Is he slow on the turn?’

“I’ll admit, I asked the same of Stan when he first came to me about Harry.

"Stan’s reply was priceless, ‘Well, you were slow on the turn and you did OK.'”

Maguire left Hull to join Leicester in 2017 before becoming the most expensive defender in the world two years later.