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Manchester United have agreed an £85million fee with Leicester City to sign Harry Maguire.

Just let that sink in a minute.

That's a world-record fee for a defender.

That's £85m for a player who has the sole honour of a Championship play-off win to his name.

That's £10m more than Liverpool paid for arguably the best centre-back in the world Virgil van Dijk.

That's a full £2m more than the whole of the Reds defence which started in Madrid before the club claimed the European Cup in June.

(Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

There is no question that Maguire is an excellent footballer, he's strong in the air and leads from the back so will improve United's leaky and shaky backline but that is an extraordinary amount of money to pay for him.

It means bosses at Old Trafford have now set club, British and world defensive transfer records in the last six years.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is a Liverpool Academy product, Aaron-Wan Bissaka cost United £50m.

Joel Matip was a free transfer and Joe Gomez cost the Reds just £3.5m, United paid more than £30m each for Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly.

Maguire's Championship play-off win came when he was part of the same Hull defence as Andy Robertson - a left-back who the Reds paid just £8m for in 2017 and one the Tigers even unveiled alongside the England international in a double transfer swoop back in 2014. Luke Shaw arrived in Manchester for more than £30m.

Liverpool themselves did look at buying Maguire when he was with the Tigers but instead they turned their attentions to Van Dijk in the summer of 2017.

(Image: Photo by James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images)

The deal broke down but the club would eventually return towards the end of the year and confirmed the player would be a Red the following January.

At the time Liverpool's whopping £75million outlay for Van Dijk made him the world's most expensive defender, but that has now been eclipsed.

The Maguire deal proves just what a sensational bit of business Liverpool did to bring in Van Dijk as a player who totally transformed the defence, won the European Cup and came agonisingly close to domestic glory in his first full season at the club.

The transformation of Liverpool's showings at the back with Van Dijk's excellent consistency at its heart is nothing short of sensational.

The Reds ended the last campaign with 21 clean sheets and just 22 Premier League goals conceded - the best in the division.

Rival fans scoffed and sneered at the sheer weight of numbers Liverpool were prepared to put down in an effort to solve their long-running defensive issues.

To some, the Reds were paying a significant premium for their botched efforts a few months prior and social media - as it usually is - was awash with inflammatory hot-takes, mocking Jurgen Klopp and his team for the gigantic transfer.

"Southampton have got one hell of a deal," said Alan Shearer at the time. "Van Dijk is a good player, yes, but for £75m? No, he's not worth it at all."

Gary Neville also gave his thoughts, offering: "Over the last few years [Southampton] have lost some good players for good money but nothing at this level. It seems like a fantastic sell."

Those doubts and those jibes have paled into total insignificance and will likely be heading the way of United and England international Maguire.

Of course, Maguire will have the opportunity to prove to the doubters wrong - it is hard to see but even if he goes some way to replicating what Van Dijk has done at Liverpool, the money paid is still staggering.