United would have paid \u00a3100 million for Varane but the World Cup winner was never available and as the options were put to them over the course of a transfer window there were too many good reasons to ignore them. It means they go into their first game against Leicester City at Old Trafford on Friday night without signing the centre-back Mourinho has asked for during pre-season.<\/p>\n
The club believe they have delivered over the course of the last two windows on the agreed targets with around \u00a373 million invested this window in Fred, Diogo Dalot and goalkeeper Lee Grant, as well as the \u00a335 million cash committed for the fee for Alexis Sanchez in January.<\/p>\n
It was around five hours before the\u00a0deadline that United were linked with Atletico Madrid\u2019s veteran Diego Godin, the club cited as having made an approach for the Uruguayan. In reality an intermediary had contacted United a few days earlier asking whether they would be interested in Godin. United said they were happy to be kept informed. The next and final conversation was the intermediary telling United that Godin has signed a new contract.<\/p>\n
Yerry Mina\u00a0was offered by Barcelona to United and a number of other clubs before the World Cup finals for \u20ac11m in an attempt by the Spanish champions to get their money back on a player they signed in January. Post-World Cup finals it was not the price being quoted for Mina but the structure of the agents\u2019 fees being proposed that made the club uncomfortable. United felt paying them would set a damaging precedent set that could prove a problem in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Yerry](\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/football\/2018\/08\/06\/TELEMMGLPICT000167859074_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqL8GgNJ8CXUnZ1idQb-_5CSgDQkBHRUMMHmrTty1IXHk.jpeg?imwidth=480\")
<\/div>M<\/span>ina was regarded by United as very far off the level that they wanted in a centre-back \u2013 and certainly not in the category of Varane. The Colombian\u2019s standout performances at the World Cup finals, including England, marked him out as a specialist player, one for certain opponents whose threat would come in the air, but there were concerns about his all-round game.<\/p>\n The offer of signing Jerome Boateng, the 29-year-old Bayern Munich defender, was the easiest to reject. By United\u2019s calculations he had simply missed too much football through injury over the last three years \u2013 playing no more than 19 league games in each season. United are wary of buying from Munich since their expensive misadventure with Bastian Schweinsteiger. To a lesser extent they feel that Owen Hargreaves also came to them in 2007 with the basis of what would become effectively a career-ending injury.<\/p>\n Harry Maguire was a genuine target\u00a0although no progress was ever made with Leicester, and while it has proved impossible to change minds the softening of the club\u2019s stance over time with Riyad Mahrez\u00a0has given United some encouragement that it could be a long-term project. There was no offer made at any point for Toby Alderweireld at Tottenham Hotspur, another one whom United felt that in the long-term would not materially improve their five centre-back options.<\/p>\n How Mourinho reacts from now will be dictated to some extent by results but the key objectives at the turn of the year have all been fulfilled as far as the club are concerned. The signing of Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk to give energy to the midfield, was a long-term project with serious negotiations starting in Kiev in February. Signing Sanchez when he became available was another. Mourinho wanted a third-choice homegrown eligible goalkeeper \u2013Grant was signed. The United manager also wanted Marouane Fellaini re-signed on a new contract.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n T<\/span>he centre-back discussion has only become an issue this summer, and the club have felt that the options open to them have not warranted the investment they would have required. Internally, the greatest frustration for Mourinho has been waiting for the return those players who had the longest World Cup campaigns. He said on Thursday that some of Paul Pogba, Ashley Young, Fellaini and Jesse Lingard may yet be involved against Leicester.<\/p>\n Speaking at Carrington, Mourinho said: \u201cIf they feel they can help us, 20 minutes, ten minutes half an hour\u2026 I’d prefer to look to the bench and to have them rather than to have 16-year-old boys without experience and without the power to be Premier League player directly. I’d prefer to have them even if they are not top, top, top.\u201d<\/p>\n There was no question of Pogba being allowed to leave and there remains great support for Anthony Martial at the club, with every inquiry about him over the summer being met with a firm refusal. Having left the club\u2019s United States tour to attend the birth of his child, the French forward will now \u201cstart again\u201d, Mourinho said, with pre-season training.<\/p>\n United voted against the early closing of the transfer window when it was put to the Premier League last year and feel that decision has been vindicated by the prices being quoted to them by European clubs trying to take advantage of the situation. Matteo Darmian may yet be sold with great interest in him from the leading clubs in Italy although none of them have got close yet to United\u2019s asking price.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Telegraph<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jose Mourinho was told by Manchester United that the club would only sign a world-class defender of the calibre of Real Madrid\u2019s World Cup winner Raphael Varane rather than compromise with a lesser light, despite the manager\u2019s demands otherwise. United would have paid \u00a3100 million for Varane but the World Cup winner was never available …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/football\/2018\/08\/09\/TELEMMGLPICT000171106442_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqaRL1kC4G7DT9ZsZm6Pe3PehAFAI_f6ud569StXyOKH0.jpeg?imwidth=480\")
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