“Manchester United are a very big club”, he told Canal Plus of the interest.
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Raphael Varane has revealed he turned down a move to Manchester United because he is happy at Real Madrid.
“But from the first moment I knew the project and that [Real] had for me and my role, there were no more questions”.
Mata, writing on his official blog, said: “After the global break, there is a game coming on Saturday that I’m sure many of you are waiting for – the Manchester derby”.
The former PSG forward said that he moved to Old Trafford because of the healthy professional relationship he shared with Red Devils’ manager Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese boss was already heavily linked with the Frenchman during his time at Chelsea and recent reports in Spain claimed that he once again called the centre-back this summer to lure him to Old Trafford.
Now Varane has opened up on the approach from United, as he confirmed he was “flattered” by the approaches from United, before insisting the lure of staying at Real Madrid convinced him to stay. It’s not easy to say “No” to Jose Mourinho, but you have to weigh up the pros and the cons.
Police officers in attendance at Saturday’s Manchester derby will reportedly be briefed on the rivalry between managers Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.
Meanwhile, Manchester United is not without its own issues, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan a major doubt for next weekend’s derby after being ruled out for between seven and 10 days with a thigh injury sustained on global duty.
What that’ll be remains to be seen up until the teams are announced on Saturday morning, but we think one of these thee options could make up for the missing Argentine…
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Varane has made 153 appearances for the European champions and has a contract until 2020 with the club.
