According to the Daily Star, Manchester City have beaten off competition from city-rivals Manchester United to sign Leicester and England centre-back Harry Maguire. The Star reports that the Citizens will pay around £65million to sign the centre-back.

There are also suggestions that City have already arranged a medical for Maguire and will complete the next within the next week. The Citizens are now hot favourites to sign the centre-back.

Maguire would be a replacement for Kompany

Manchester City have a very big void to fill in their squad summer after the exit of club captain Vincent Kompany to Anderlecht. The veteran defenders contract ran out this summer and he has returned home to become player/boss at his former club.

The Belgian will be a hard figure to replace, especially in the dressing where he was seen as a major influence and leader. Maguire is not the same sort of defender or personality.

The 26-year-old centre-back is more of a ball-plying centre-back than the solid Kompany. He does seem to have a big character and should fit in well with the players already in the Citizens squad. He does not have the same leadership qualities as the outgoing Kompany.

Manchester United need Maguire more than City

The Daily Star report claims that Manchester United have already seen a bid of around £40million turned down by Leicester for the centre-back. Like every area of their team, The Red Devils need to strengthen at centre-back.

United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly and Phil Jones available to him. However, the Red Devils defensive struggles over the past few seasons have shown that their centre-backs are not good enough.

Maguire would be an upgrade on most of the Red Devils current options at centre-back. Whether his presence alone in the United backline would make them more solid is questionable, though.

City have better centre-back options in Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi, although reportedly the latter is looking to leave the club from Manchester this summer. While City do need to add to their defensive options, they still have better defensive options.

It would be doubtful that many tears would be shed if United sold any other five defenders mentioned above. All at one point or another have proven themselves to be error-prone and just downright unreliable.

Maguire now looks destined to leave the Foxes

With two of the most high-profile clubs after him, Harry Maguire looks unlikely to be at Leicester City for much longer. If the Foxes get £65million for the former Hull star, then they will have to look at it as great business.

Maguire is a good player. However, he is not irreplaceable or world-class. The Foxes could easy reinvest that money in two £30million players to make their team better for next season. The whole transfer could work out well for the club from the Midlands.

It will be interesting to see how Maguire copes with the step up into playing in the Champions League and challenging for the title if he does make the move to Manchester this summer.

Will Harry Maguire become a Manchester City player this summer?