It was midway through the second half at Hampden Park last September when Harry Maguire's career took another major turn towards disaster.
England beat Scotland 2-0 and it wasn't even a match. The Scots were terrible and English Jude Bellingham was walking around in his slippers.
But then Andy Robertson crossed hopefully from the right and Harry Maguire, coming on as a half-time substitute, swung a boot at the ball and sliced it into his own net.
It didn't – as it turned out – change the game. England won 3-1. But for Maguire it felt like the bottom of a barrel had been reached.
The English defender was not playing for Manchester United at the time. Manager Erik ten Hag had tried to sell him to West Ham a month earlier, but had decided not to go.
Once an £80m defender who was also being courted by Manchester City at the time United bought him from Leicester, Maguire had lost his form, his confidence and the captaincy at Old Trafford. He had become an example of disaster, an example of how quickly a career can go wrong.
Even before that own goal, Maguire's every touch of the ball was greeted with derision by the Scotland fans. They mocked him mercilessly on a night when there wasn't much else available to cheer them up. And then, right on cue, he delivered. Maguire OG.
I was at that match in Glasgow and remember thinking it was one of the most desperate experiences I had ever seen a footballer go through. Loris Karius was quite ugly for Liverpool in the Champions League final in Kiev against Real Madrid in 2018. So did Scott Carson when England lost to Croatia at Wembley to miss out on qualification for the 2008 European Championship.
But those are personal traumas caused by mistakes in an individual game. That night at Hampden, Maguire's night was dreadful from the moment it started and it said everything about where his career seemed to be going at the time.
The longer it lasted at United, the more Ten Hag seemed intent on playing almost everyone in the center of defense. He didn't want Maguire. Wouldn't have rated it and would do anything not to play it.
And Maguire could have gone. He could have gone to West Ham. A lot of players would have done that. There have been other defenders who have hung around United too long for their own good. Phil Jones – recently retired – is one. Chris Smalling looked like he was about to leave for Italy.
But Maguire chose to stay here and keep his head down and see what happened. And there he was, shortly after keeping Erling Haaland silent during last Sunday's Manchester derby, standing in the interview room at the Etihad Stadium talking about the possibility of a new United contract.
“All signs are positive at the moment,” Maguire said. 'The conversation I have is very positive.'
Maguire is now 31 and his current United deal expires in June. The club has an option to extend the agreement for another year if they wish, but the agreement is that the current conversation will extend for another year on top of that.
That would be quite an achievement for a player many people wrote off long ago, and vindication for the rather old-fashioned approach of keeping your wits about you and carrying on.
There have been other players at United who have taken a different path. Jadon Sancho poked Ten Hag so often that a confrontation inevitably followed. Marcus Rashford, meanwhile, has allowed himself to slowly drown under the weight of the drip, drip, drip of his own apparent indifference.
However, self-knowledge is everything in football, and Maguire has always had it. I have heard him talk several times about his service in England, often when he was not obliged to do so. Each time, the message was the same, which was that it was up to him to prove he was better than a public characterization that had taken several turns in the wrong direction over time.
There were times at United when it seemed like Maguire could have been handled with more nuance and subtlety. I'm sure he was a little miffed about that at times. There would have been times when, as a former captain and senior player, he probably felt he deserved a little more attention. But the truth is that football is often not a very subtle game. You're either in or you're out. No shades of gray.
It may be too early to suggest Maguire is back at United. He has just returned from injury and saw him start only his second game for new manager Ruben Amorim last Sunday. But it is possible he could fit well into Amorim's back three and last Sunday's supremacy over Haaland will not have done him any harm.
Maguire has been at Old Trafford for just over five years. Things didn't go quite as he had hoped. But he is still with us. Still playing, still trying. No pointing fingers. If others think they can learn something from it, they are not wrong.
Pereira hardly earned the Wolves job
Vitor Pereira won the Portuguese league with Porto in 2012 and 2013 and then did the same in Greece with Olympiakos in 2015.
Since then, Wolves' new manager has had seven jobs in Brazil, Turkey, China and most recently Saudi Arabia. Only once has he made more than 100 appearances for one club in a career that stretches back 20 years.
We know why Wolves hired him. Fosun Group owners have a close relationship with Portuguese real estate agent Jorge Mendes, who has served them well in the past. His client Nuno Espirito Santo got Wolves promoted in 2018 and the following season they finished seventh in the top division, their best result since 1980.
The current Wolves squad consists of six Portuguese players and proponents of the model will point to the fact that the club recently moved with an English manager, Gary O'Neil, and had to sack him last weekend with the club next to the bottom of the selection. the Eredivisie.
Yet it is difficult to see how Pereira, 56, qualifies for the role of Premier League manager, aside from his association. If I were a Wolves fan, I would occasionally wonder how I should relate to my football club.
The English bow of Bramley Moore Dock
England cannot play their World Cup qualifier at home to Andorra at Wembley next September because the national stadium is hosting a series of Coldplay concerts.
That's very good news for everyone except Andorra's footballers who will no doubt be keen to gallop around the legendary ancient site.
England matches at Wembley can be dull affairs and I have long been an advocate of taking them on the road.
The FA are often reluctant but on this occasion they have no choice and it seems a perfect excuse to bring an England match to Everton's new stadium at the Bramley Moore Dock.
It's at least worth asking a question.
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