Troy Deeney reveals Harry Maguire's agent ranted at him after he criticised the Man United defender

Troy Deeney has claimed Harry Maguire's agent ranted at him over the phone complaining about his criticism of the Man United star on talkSport - telling the Watford legend he 'wouldn't say it to his face'.

Deeney was still with Watford in 2020 when he singled out Maguire after Paul Pogba emerged as the scapegoat for United's difficult season under then-boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - stressing that the club captain deserved to take more stick.

The forward - now with Birmingham - had been working as a pundit for the radio station before his words struck a nerve with Maguire's representative Kenneth Shepherd, who called him after the player had arrived at training.

'I was at Watford when his agent called me,' he told Ben Foster's Fozcast podcast. I was speaking [on talkSport] about the leadership, about Harry Maguire, about David De Gea - about all the senior guys, why is it always Paul Pogba because it was always him getting battered early doors. That's all I said.

'I get to training phone is ringing from a number I don't know. The same number called two or three times so I thought 'there must be a problem here'.

'I picked it up. It's Harry Maguire's agent, 'You can't do this, you can't do that. You wouldn't say it to Harry's face. And I was like 'hold on, one second, let's rewind. I have said this, I didn't say that. I would say it to Harry's face because I've got no problem'.'

Deeney then decided to ring the player himself to get his side of the story - before being surprised to discover that the England international knew nothing of what had happened, leaving the veteran forward seething at Shepherd - who is the son of former Newcastle chairman Freddy.

'I said 'let me call him now and I'll come back to you',' he added. 'I called him and he has no clue what's going on.

'I phoned the agent back saying, 'Listen mate, please don't phone me giving it the big'un because I'm not that guy and you're going to have a problem you don't want.

'It made me realise that my voice was powerful and penetrating. I just said 'what about the leadership' and it made this super agent come out of his little nest and say 'hold up Troy, we're taking a battering here'.

'To be fair to Harry, he said to me 'I don't know what all that's about'. I said, 'It's not a problem, but the way he phoned and the aggression he was having. A younger me would have taken that much more personally. This is what I said - I'll tell you to your face, I've got no problem.'

Maguire started 34 games in the 2020-21 season but cracks in his game began to show and he has now found himself out of the starting line-up under current boss Erik ten Hag.

After United were beaten 1-0 by Arsenal in November 2020, Deeney said Maguire should be held partly accountable for the club's struggles in a chat with journalist Neil Custis - saying it was unfair that Pogba was given much of the blame.

'I can understand why people talk about Pogba, but why is no one going at Harry Maguire? Why hasn't he faced much criticism? Is he not the captain? Is he not the guy who is meant to lead the ship? Other than the England stuff, where's the criticism of him over the last two or three weeks?

'You talk about the time under Ferguson, that's gone, the people need to just put that away, it's like talking about Arsenal under Wenger, it's finished, you've had three or four managers since then.

'I understand Pogba needs to be better, but I don't see the level of criticism raised at Harry Maguire. You're the captain of this ship, why are you not leading it? Why are you not visibly calling people out in front of everybody?'