La Liga Ace Pushing For €46m Man Utd Move Despite Interest From Chelsea

The January transfer window is now closed but that won’t stop the newspapers from speculating ahead of the summer so we’ll bring you all the news and gossip. Today, Man Utd and Chelsea are linked with Raphael Varane….

Raphael Varane is ready to snub interest from Chelsea to join Manchester United this summer with Louis van Gaal willing to pay Real Madrid €46m for his signature, according to reports.

Varane moved to Madrid from Lens in 2011 but has found regular first team football hard to come by with Carlo Ancelotti more often than not opting to go with Pepe and Sergio Ramos as his first choice centre-back pairing.

It’s meant that Varane has made just 55 La Liga starts over the past three-and-a-half years, with many of those coming as a substitute, and although the 21-year-old has been playing more often in recent weeks, that’s only because Pepe and Ramos have been injured.

Speculation has suggested that the French international is growing increasingly frustrated with his role at the club and it’s led to rumours that of a potential move to the Premier League with Manchester United and Chelsea strongly linked.

Reports last month suggested that United had stepped up their interest in the centre-back and now the Express claim that Varane is ‘pushing’ for a move to Old Trafford over Stamford Bridge as the Red Devils can offer him the first team football he wants.

The newspaper suggests that van Gaal is willing to spend €46m (£30m) to land the talented defender but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to tempt Madrid into a sale.

Varane’s contract runs until 2020 so they are under no pressure to sell, but it’s understood the European champions have already identified Athletic Bilbao’s Aymeric Laporte as a potential replacement in-case the Frenchman demands a move.

READ MORE –> Chelsea transfer news | Man Utd transfer news

United are expected to make signing a centre-back a priority this summer and Varane would be a sensational coup if they could pull it off as he’d be the type of player they could build their defence around for the next decade.

However, there is still a long way to go before he’s a United player and I wouldn’t discount Chelsea from the race just yet. Jose Mourinho is a huge fan of Varane’s and even though John Terry is still producing world class performances, he’ll be 35 this year and the Blues will have to find a successor for their skipper eventually. Could that man be Varane? We’ll have to wait and see….