A Chelsea board member has urged owner Todd Boehly to make a sʜᴏᴄᴋ move for Manchester United’s Raphael Varane.
According to experts transfer Chelsea – Simon Phillips, a senior anonymous board member at Chelsea tried to convince persuaded President Boehly to sign defender Varane from Man Utd.
However, the journalist added that this is a deal that is unlikely to succeed. Chelsea is very well placed at centre-back, even if their defense has continuously conceded goals this season.
Varane is considering his future until 2024 after losing his starting position at Man Utd. The Daily Telegraph recently reported that there was a “strained relationship” between Varane and coach Erik ten Hag after the Dutch coach put Varane on the bench.
The French midfielder did not start in Man Utd’s last 3 matches, in which he lost his place to former captain Harry Maguire.
On the other hand, Ten Hag dismissed speculation about his options in defense: “Absolutely not. As I said, there are tactical reasons why I choose suitable centre-back pairings. I think Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans did well,” Ten Hag said in an interview.
“As I said last year, Harry Maguire didn’t play much so I was very satisfied with Rapha Varane’s performance. I’m always satisfied with his performance. But at the moment, Harry is playing very well and there is internal competition.”
In addition, Ten Hag also believes that Varane and Maguire are not the ideal center-back pair:
“There were moments in some games where Maguire and Varane could play together and they proved they could do that. But the deployment is not smooth when one of them plays as left centre-back.”
Ten Hag’s statements implicitly confirm that he will choose Maguire or Varane in the next match, not both.
Even so, a move to Chelsea seems impossible. Varane has also been linked with Bayern Munich in recent days.