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Mourinho reportedly wanted reunion with 6ft 3 enforcer during first window at Man United

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

According to AS, as referenced by Sport Witness, Jose Mourinho wanted to reunite with Raphael Varane at Manchester United boss upon his arrival in the summer of 2016.

What’s the word, then?

Mourinho took charge of United ahead of the 2016/17 campaign, and the Portuguese actually delivered two major trophies during his first year at the club – three if the Community Shield is included.

Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all arrived at the club that summer, in addition to central defender Eric Bailly.

However, according to AS, Bailly was second choice at United with Mourinho desperate to bring Varane to Old Trafford in his first summer at the helm.

The report claims that the France international was the English club’s leading target, but Los Blancos boss Zinedine Zidane convinced Varane to remain at the Bernabeu.

As mentioned, the Red Devils instead signed Bailly from Villarreal, and it has been struggle for the Ivory Coast international due to various injuries.

Would Varane’s arrival had made a difference?

It would be fair to say that central defenders were a huge topic of debate in the latter stages of Mourinho’s time at the club.

The summer before he left, the Portuguese was seemingly determined to sign either Toby Alderweireld, Jerome Boateng or Yerry Mina after being priced out of a move for Harry Maguire.

Mourinho was unable to bring a new central defender to the club in that particular window, though, and the experienced manager was out of the door a few months later.

Varane would have solved a lot of issues at Old Trafford, with the 26-year-old possessing the strength, pace and ball-playing skills to be a huge star in Manchester.

A key part of the France squad that won the 2018 World Cup, Varane has made close to 300 appearances for Los Blancos in all competitions, and has four Champions League trophies to his name.

Things might have been different for Mourinho had he managed to secure the 6 ft 3 star, and Zidane’s reported intervention has caused the club a whole heap of problems since.

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