Loyal Maguire has lofty ambitions with Blades

The 19-year-old centre-half was part of the Blades side which suffered Wembley heartache last season in the play-offs, but an unbeaten start to the new League One campaign has confidence rising at Bramall Lane once more.

And for Sheffield-born Maguire – who many expected to quit the Lane as the Blades cashed in on some of their prized assets to help cut a troublesome wage bill – he hopes his loyalty to the Blades will be rewarded with promotion this term.

Matt Lowton, Stephen Quinn and Nick Montgomery headed a list of star players who left in the summer, but centre-half Maguire claims it “never crossed my mind” to join the exodus.

“My future at the moment is with Sheffield United,” he said. “In three, four or five years hopefully we’ll be in the Premiership. The main aim now is just to get out of League One, then challenge in the Championship.

“I’d be willing to wait. It’s never crossed my mind wanting to leave this club.

“They gave me my chance, giving me my debut, and I have just carried on from there.

“I feel a loyalty to this team. This is a great football club.

“I’ve got a three-year contract, we have a great squad and we all think we are capable of promotion.

“It was hard (losing the play-off final) but we’ve brushed it over our shoulders now.

“I just want to play as many games as I can this season, like last year, and hopefully get promotion and get us back where we belong,” he added.

Maguire was linked with big-money moves to the Premier League over the summer, but the down-to-earth Sheffielder was happy to just watch all the speculation from his sofa at home.

“You hear a lot of rumours flying about, but I just turn up for training every day and try to get on with it the best I can,” said Maguire, who has played in United’s first five league games this season.

“My brother came rushing in and told me there was all this stuff on the internet about me having a medical down in Cardiff.

“It was a bit weird really because I was actually sat on the sofa at home.

“Seriously, I tend to ignore all of that stuff. It’s really got nothing to do with me. It doesn’t unsettle me, I find it amusing and just brush it to one side.

“I just want to play more games, get more experience.

“Getting promotion is the main thing this year. We have a young squad, and you can just see the talent in training. There’s a really good team spirit.”