Arsenal: Harry Maguire deal shows turbulence of centre-back market

Manchester United are set to sign Harry Magure from Leicester City for £80 million. The remarkable deal illustrates the turbulence of the centre-back market and perhaps sheds light on Arsenal’s inactivity this summer.

We all know about the explosion of prices in the modern football. Ever since Paul Pogba returned to Manchester United in what seemed like a crazy deal and Jose Mourinho said that it would soon be viewed as a bargain, the prices in football have boggled the mind.

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Neymar and Kylian Mbappe costing £200 million, goalkeepers topping £70 million, and club-record and world-record fees being broken on seemingly a yearly basis. It has been unhinged, to say the least.

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But throughout this recent acceleration of prices, the majority of the deals have involved attacking players. Wingers, strikers, creative midfielders. Predominantly, defenders have not quite commanded the same fees — this has always been the case. Apparently, a world-class centre-half is not worth as much as a world-class winger.

This week, though, Manchester United agreed on a new world-record fee for Leicester City defender, Harry Maguire. The proposed £80 million move will top the £75 million paid for Virgil van Dijk 18 months ago. It seems as though the centre-half market is also now joining in with the fun.

Maguire is a decent Premier League defender with high character. He is strong in the air, comfortable on the ball, and is seen to have the potential to lead a title-winning defence by Ole Gunnar Soljskjaer. But he is not one of the few best centre-halves in the world. He barely cracks the top ten in the Premier League alone. And this is what £80 million buys you in the modern centre-half market.

While Arsenal’s hesitation to invest in a new centre-half this summer has been frustrating, when deals like this are completed, it is easy to see why they have not been so willing to splash out on mediocrity. Instead, they have focused their attentions and resources on players who can make a substantial difference, like Nicolas Pepe and Kieran Tierney.

At centre-half, rather than dive into the Maguire rat race, signing a decent player for an elite fee, the Gunners turned to William Saliba, a player with a far higher ceiling than Maguire but is not nearly ready in the present. Arsenal’s roughly £27 million deal for 18-year-old is them getting ahead of the curve. Should Saliba develop as is expected, he will be too expensive and too highly coveted for the north London outfit to both attract and afford his services.

So instead, they jumped forward a year, paying a more reasonable fee when there is less competition to sign him, but acknowledging the greater risk that he may not turn out to be the player that is presently hoped of him. In essence, they have evaded the pitfalls of the modern centre-half market, unlike United.

It would obviously be nice to see the Gunners sign a new centre-half. God knows they need one. But given the volatility of the market, the pitfalls that must be avoided, and the prices that are presently be paid, they have attempted to bend the rules a little and, as Raul Sanllehi would say ‘outsmart’ the competition. And if the Maguire deal is anything to go by, it might just work.