Chelsea
Man Utd & Chelsea Boosted In Pursuit Of €34m-Rated French Star
Manchester United are Chelsea have been boosted in their pursuit of Raphael Varane with the unsettled French international on collision course with Real Madrid
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, Chelsea and Manchester United are linked with Raphael Varane….
Manchester United are Chelsea have been boosted in their pursuit of Raphael Varane with the unsettled French international on collision course with Real Madrid, according to the Mirror.
Varane has been at Madrid since joining the club from Lens in 2011 but has found it difficult to force his way into Carlo Ancelotti’s first team plans on a regular basis, with the experienced Italian coach preferring Pepe and Sergio Ramos as his centre-back pairing.
It’s led to Varane managing to make just 53 La Liga appearances over the past three-and-a-half years, with many of those coming off the bench, and although he’s been playing far more frequently in recent weeks, that’s largely down to the fact Ramos is out injured.
It’s understandable that the French international is becoming increasingly frustrated with his role at the club and the Mirror claim that he’s now on collision course with Madrid as they’re set to open talks with Pepe over a new contract extension.
Should the Portuguese international commit his long-term future to the Bernabeu, then it could be the last straw for Varane as he knows that as long as Pepe and Ramos are still at the club, he’s likely to be considered nothing more than a back-up.
There would be no shortage of takers if Varane decided he wanted to leave the Bernabeu in search of regular first team action and both Manchester United and Chelsea have been strongly linked with the 21-year-old in recent months, so they will be watching on with interest as the summer approaches.
Louis van Gaal is widely tipped to bring in a top class centre-half this summer and I’m sure the United boss would jump at the chance of luring a player of Varane’s quality to Old Trafford as he’s exactly the type of defender he could build his team around.
But Jose Mourinho has been a huge admirer of Varane’s over the years and he was in charge at Madrid when they signed him back in 2011. With the Blues needing to find a long-term replacement for John Terry, I’m sure Mourinho would love to be reunited with the Frenchman at Stamford Bridge.
READ MORE –> Chelsea transfer news | Man Utd transfer news
However, Madrid are under no pressure to sell as Varane is contracted to the club until 2020, so the Mirror claim it would take an offer of €34m (£25m) to even tempt the European champions into a sale.
That sort of money sounds more than reasonable in today’s market for a player of Varane’s quality and potential and both Chelsea and United would have little problem paying that figure, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this develops over the summer.
