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It is during the unguarded moments, often away from the public gaze, when the joy and basic jauntiness of winning a cup is laid bare. There was Jadon Sancho, who came on as an 83rd-minute substitute for Manchester United in their 2-0 Carabao Cup final victory against Newcastle, leaving Wembley on Sunday night with a blaring ghetto blaster, which was quite the change from the usual chunky headphones.
For a few seconds, Wout Weghorst, holding court, was drowned out. The striker, a January loanee from Burnley, had an old-school United scarf over his club tracksuit and a red cap in hand. He was asked what he would have said at the end of December about winning a trophy with United; the first of his career. “Deal,” he replied, beaming.
Weghorst started the game, helped to set up the second goal and if goals are not going in for him personally – he has one in 12 United appearances – but the team are flying he would take that all day long. “I scored a lot of goals in the past and I never won one trophy,” he said. Weghorst captured the wonder of it all.
A little bit before that, there was Sir Alex Ferguson bustling through the mixed zone, where journalists wait to speak to players. Seeing the Manchester pack, he had a crack for one of them. “You’re not still writing are you?” he said (expletive removed) and there was only love and nostalgia from the club’s former manager. Wasn’t there?
Into all of this went Harry Maguire. The club captain, as he referred to himself more than once, had just won the first trophy of his career. His family were in the stands and the victory had gone some way to making up for the disappointment of his other final with United – the Europa League penalty shootout defeat against Villarreal in 2021. He got to hoist aloft the cup and the fans celebrated a first trophy since 2017.
Maguire wanted to talk it up, to get on board with the Weghorst vibe. But this was neither the full story for him nor how he would have imagined it when he signed from Leicester for £80m in 2019.
The central defender had come on as an 88th-minute substitute, his days as a regular starter long since over, ended by Erik ten Hag after the manager’s first couple of games at the start of this season. And the trophy lift came as one half of a double act alongside Bruno Fernandes, who had captained the team at the outset.
For United supporters of a certain generation, it recalled Ferguson’s first two Premier League titles of 1993 and 1994 with Bryan Robson still at the club. Robson was 36 and no longer an automatic pick when the first was won. He was frequently the non-starting club captain, but because of his standing he picked up those two trophies alongside the team captain, Steve Bruce.
It is never a bad thing to be mentioned in the same context as Robson, but for Maguire maybe it is in this instance. Because when Robson lifted that silverware, he was firmly into his Old Trafford endgame. He left the club in the summer of 1994.
“I don’t have any mixed emotions,” Maguire said. “It’s a really good day for the club and the fans. I am club captain and my main job is to move this club forward and to bring success back and this has been part of it.
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“I am a footballer who wants to play games and I want to lead the boys out of the tunnel at the start. But I also understand this is part and parcel of football when you play at the top level and you have got huge competition for places. It’s a real good day for the club and for me, a proud day for my family.”
Maguire is acutely aware of his position in Ten Hag’s pecking order, which is firmly behind the first-choice centre-halves – Raphaël Varane on the right; the left-footed Lisandro Martínez on the left. “The lads who are playing and starting … Rapha is playing really well and we have seen the manager’s ideas, he does like a left-footed centre-back playing,” Maguire said.
Ten Hag has preferred the left-back Luke Shaw to Maguire at left centre-half since the World Cup. It has left Maguire in a battle with Victor Lindelöf to be the fourth-choice, which he has not always won. For the 29-year-old England mainstay, the situation is untenable and a summer transfer is surely the only solution.
In the meantime, though, as on Sunday, Maguire must put on a brave face, focus on the positives and his role in the collective; driving on the starters, always ready for the call.
“This is Manchester United,” he said. “We want to win trophies, big trophies, and to do that you need competition for places.
“The manager speaks to me daily, he really respects me and believes that I am a top centre-half with all the attributes to play in his team. But he also understands that the players who are playing are playing very well.
“The lads who aren’t playing – myself included – are pushing those who are. That is what a big club’s about. What is being built here is why we have won one competition and are still in the other three.”
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