Transfer talks are ‘going to drag’ as Manchester United look to sign player for ‘off-market price’

On Thursday, TF1 journalist Julien Maynard reported there’s an ‘agreement in principle’ between Raphaël Varane and Manchester United.

AS now state Real Madrid have given permission to the 28-year-old to negotiate with the Red Devils and he has ‘reached an agreement’ with them.

It’s now down to the Premier League side to ‘make an effort’ and get closer to the €70m fee demanded by Los Blancos.

United, for now, don’t want to move away from the deal worth €45m [€40m fixed fee plus €5m in bonuses].

As per the report, Carlo Ancelotti’s have ‘rejected’ the first offer made by the English club and ‘both parties have been summoned to resume talks’.

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With no agreement between the two sides, a source close to the negotiation has told the newspaper the ‘talks are going to drag on for a while’, unless there’s a surprise twist.

Due to the time left on the Frenchman’s current deal, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side think they can sign the player on an ‘off-market price’. 

Real Madrid, for their part, ‘intends to remain firm’ to not sell Varane [if their demands are not met].

They would rather prefer to retain him and try to negotiate a new contract, hoping that their economic conditions would improve over the course of the season, when fans return to the stadium.

AS state this option is ‘considered distant’ because the centre-back has an agreement in place with United and the negotiations between the two clubs have already started.