Bayern make opening bid for Man Utd outcast

Carlo Garganese

• 27 Dec 2023 17:00 GMT
• 3 min read

Bayern Munich are set to make an opening bid for Man Utd outcast Raphael Varane.

That is according to Spanish newspaper Sport, who report that Bayern are prepared to pay up to €20 million for the defender.

Bayern will sign a centre back in January as they will lose Kim Min-jae to the Asian Cup, while they are also without fellow defender Noussair Mazraoui at the Africa Cup of Nations.

United value Varane at €15-20m and are unlikely to stand in the way of him leaving.

The World Cup winner has lost his place in the United first team and is not valued highly by manager Erik ten Hag.

He has fallen so far down the centre back order that Jonny Evans, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw have all been preferred to him as Harry Maguire’s centre back partner for most of this season.

Lisandro Martinez, currently injured, is Ten Hag’s untouchable when fit in the centre of defence.

The Daily Telegraph reported recently that there is a “strained relationship” between Varane and Ten Hag after the Dutchman dropped the centre back.

What did Ten Hag say?

Ten Hag rejected these reports of a fall-out: “Absolutely not. As I said, it is about tactical reasons why I chose these partnerships. I think Harry [Maguire] and Jonny [Evans] did well,” Ten Hag said.

“What I said last year, Harry [Maguire] didn’t play a lot, so I was very happy with Rapha [Varane]’s performances. I have always been happy with his performance. But in this moment, Harry is playing very well and there is internal competition.”

Ten Hag appeared to suggest that Varane and Maguire are not an ideal partnership.

“There are moments in certain games where they [Maguire and Varane] can play together and they have already proven they can do it,” he said.

“But the build-up is not that fluid when one of them is playing from the left centre-back position,” explained Ten Hag.

This would suggest that Ten Hag will generally pick either Maguire or Varane, and not both, although they did start together against Bayern in the Champions League.

Varane also has interest from Saudi Arabia in the form of Al-Nassr where his former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo plays.

Varane joined Man Utd from Real Madrid in 2021 but has not impressed like he did during 10 brilliant years in Spain.