Former Manchester United boss David Moyes has revealed that he considered bringing Harry Maguire to Old Trafford during his short spell as manager - but was put off a potential move due to the defender's "big a**".
United have chased Maguire all summer and finally secured his signature after forking out a whopping £80million - a world record for a defender - to prise him away from Leicester City.
The centre-back has taken little time to settle in his new surroundings and produced a debut Man of the Match performance as the Red Devils thrashed Chelsea 4-0 on Sunday.
And Moyes, who was sacked in April 2014 after just 10 months at the United helm, has explained why he decided against pursuing an interest in Maguire, who was playing for boyhood club Sheffield United at the time.
Speaking to TalkSport's Sports Breakfast, Moyes said: "We didn’t try to sign him [when at Man United] but we flagged him up at that time.
"I was very aware of the players in the lower leagues and had a made good career out of bringing them to Everton - whether that be Tim Cahill or all the ones we did through the years.
"Harry Maguire was another one I recognised. He played against Preston North End at home in a league game and I watched him and thought he played really well but at that time he was really big – he had a big a***.
"You thought 'my goodness, how big is Harry going to be' because he was a relatively young boy at that time.
"To be fair he looks in terrific shape and he hasn’t changed at all really. When I went to United, we had Vidic, Rio, Jonny Evans, Michael Keane, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling
"So for us to go and buy another young centre-half wasn’t the biggest thing we needed at the time.
"And Harry Maguire has had to go on his journey. Sometimes the players need the journey to get to where they have to go. He might have struggled then."
