Harry Maguire became a pantomime villain after an awful 2021/22 season but nobody is laughing at the Manchester United defender anymore after a show of strength last term.
Maguire was booed by Australian fans of United on tour during Erik ten Hag's first pre-season but he's put a few challenging years behind him and has moved forward. The last 12 months have seen a resurgent Maguire regain the trust of Ten Hag and a place in the team.
He was the most dependable centre-back last season, he delivered excellent performances and the gloss was only taken by a few injuries. Maguire played through the pain barrier for United in the spring but finally succumbed to injury, which meant he was unavailable for the FA Cup final and the European Championship.
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"I worked so hard throughout the year," Maguire told the MEN on pre-season tour this summer. "To get myself in a position where I was in a really good position physically and in a really good position mentally to to play in the FA Cup final and then thinking about the Euros after that.
"To have an injury which was, to be honest, not a big injury – it was just a calf injury, but it was only a three-week injury, but I just had three setbacks with it. When I first did the injury (in early May), I thought I'd be fit for the FA Cup final. So I pushed myself for the final.
"And then I had a setback in the week leading up to the final, which ruled me out of it. At that time again, it was no problem, I was going to be fit for the Euros. Then I went away with England and I had another setback, so yeah, it was so frustrating.
"When I look back, I wish I had no chance with all of them, so I could have got my head around it. But I thought I was going to play in the cup final or be involved at some stage and I thought 100 per cent I'd be involved at the Euros. But it just didn't happen and maybe I just pushed myself to get back too early, but definitely it was the toughest moment of my career, definitely."
Although Maguire was stripped of the captain's armband last year, he is still a leader at Carrington and personally greeted every academy player on the first day of pre-season. Now aged 31, Maguire has the experience to help younger players and enjoys doing so, something that he reflected upon when he was asked about new signing Leny Yoro.
"I must say I haven't trained too much with him," Maguires said last month. "But I've seen clips and I've seen attributes in a centre back of an 18-year-old that you'd want, every single attribute he's got.
"We must remind ourselves he is really young. There are going to be mistakes but he has every attribute of a centre-back in the modern game, he has it. So I’m sure he’s going to have a bright future.
"It’s our job as senior centre backs, my job, to help him along, communicate well, let him know what to expect. There are going to be times where I’m sure he’ll feel the world is on top of him, there are also going to be times where he’s going to feel like the best player in the world. And that’s what this club brings.
"I think it’s really important us senior lads help the young boys at the club. You’re starting to see now there’s so much talent in this squad but they’re going to need to be guided in the right direction and I think that’s definitely a role of mine and other lads as well."
The young players are the future of United but Maguire is the present. Not many expected that to still be the case in 2024, but he has fought his back to be regarded as a key player for the club again and is expected to start the new season's opening game against Fulham.
The addition of Matthijs de Ligt adds competition to Maguire, Yoro, Lisandro Martinez and Jonny Evans for minutes. Just like he did in the Community Shield, Martinez is likely to start at left-back against Fulham on Friday, which means Ten Hag could potentially pick Maguire to partner De Ligt in central defence.
When Martinez relocates to centre-back, there will be a choice between De Ligt and Maguire to make and you'd be foolish to bet against the latter. He has remarkable resilience and an added incentive to perform because there is just one year left on his contract, although United do have the option of another year.
It didn't make sense to sell Maguire this summer and he must fight not to be offloaded next year.
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