{"id":5383,"date":"2016-08-12T21:39:28","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T19:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/?p=5383"},"modified":"2021-08-18T15:09:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T14:09:21","slug":"manchester-united-linked-raphael-varane-leonardo-bonucci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/manchester-united-linked-raphael-varane-leonardo-bonucci\/","title":{"rendered":"A 5th Addition? Manchester United linked with classy international as No.2 jersey lies vacant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although the general consensus is that Manchester United have finished their spending for the summer rumours persist that a fifth signing could be forthcoming.<\/p>\n<p>It has come as a surprise to some that Jose Mourinho hasn&#8217;t already bought an established centre back and a few names have been bandied around already this summer in relation to canny potential additions. And <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/sport\/football\/transfer-news\/manchester-united-bonucci-mata-varane-11738823\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Manchester Evening News<\/a> dredges up two oft-mentioned names again today as they pass this one on: <\/p>\n<p><strong>ESPN say the United boss is eyeing a move for either Leonardo Bonucci of Juventus or Raphael Varane of Real Madrid.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Raphael Varane:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old France centre back, who has played 29 times for his country, is perennially rumoured to be peeved about spending his time at Real Madrid as understudy to Pepe and Sergio Ramos. Signed way back in 2011, Varane has played an increasing number of games for Madrid, season on season, but he is still regarded as the third choice centre back.<\/p>\n<p>Quite why we have no idea. Varane all the boxes to be an elite defender. He has pace, presence and good technique. He reminds TFF of Rio Ferdinand. <\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;d be a superb signing for Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Raphael Varane \u2022 Mr Clean \u2022 Defensive Skills 2015\/2016\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EUVwDx00CzM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Leonardo Bonucci:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Obviously he&#8217;s the finished article &#8211; a great passer of the ball and a solid, tough-tackling defender. But the sorts of figures that are being talked about for a fairly pedestrian 29-year-old make the idea far less attractive than the Varane alternative.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the rumour is that the Manchester Untied boss wants to sign experience.<\/p>\n<p>TFF feels that Jose will see how the first couple of games of the season pan out before deciding whether to plunder the market for a fifth signing this summer. With Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Eric Bailly, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo and Timothy Fosu-Mensah all able to play centre back Jose has lots to work with already. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Awesome players  <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/manchester-united-linked-raphael-varane-leonardo-bonucci\/\" title=\"A 5th Addition? Manchester United linked with classy international as No.2 jersey lies vacant\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[235,17,243],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12291,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions\/12291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefootballfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}