Manchester United Makes Embarrassing Raphael Varane ‘Contract’ Error

Manchester United made an embarrassing communication error which means that Raphael Varane has one year less on his contract than previously thought.

Upon Varane’s signing from Real Madrid in 2021, United publicly declared a four-year contract until 2025, inclusive of an optional extra year. However, the reality of the situation revealed that his contract actually runs until 2024, with the club holding the option to extend it to 2025.

This communication error marks the second instance for United in recent years, reminiscent of the mistake made in 2020 concerning Nemanja Matic’s contract. At that time, the club announced a three-year extension for Matic, when in fact, it was a two-year deal with the potential for an additional year. Consequently, Matic left on a free transfer for Roma in 2022.

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While United still can extend Varane’s contract by another year, uncertainties loom over his future with the club. Reports suggest that any extension might entail renegotiating his salary, potentially involving a reduction.

United value Varane at €15-20m and are unlikely to stand in the way of him leaving this month if a decent offer comes in.

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 recently, while Harry Maguire is well established ahead of him again.

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.

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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 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.