Manchester United may now have an easier path to letting Raphael Varane leave the club.
A new twist has emerged over the future of centre-back Raphael Varane, who returned to the Manchester United starting line-up last night against Bayern Munich.
Raphael Varane made his first start for Manchester United since October, although it ended in defeat.
His omission in recent weeks has been odd, but it has become a little clearer after new information came to light.
Raphael Varane could leave for free in 2024
When Manchester United announced a deal for Raphael Varane in 2021, it was declared that he was under contract until 2025.
However, according to The Athletic, this is inclusive of a one-year option which has not yet been triggered.
This means Varane is currently set to leave in June 2024, and is free to talk to foreign sides about a deal from January.
Manchester United could become more proactive about selling Varane in January for a fee, if an option is not triggered.
The report states that by not extending Varane’s deal by 2025, Manchester United will save £13 million in wages.
Decisions set to be made
A clearout is expected at Manchester United, and out of contract players may feed into this.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Anthony Martial, Victor Lindelof, Hannibal Mejbri all see their deals come to an end next year along with Varane, and United have one-year extension options for all, which have not yet been taken up.
We would expect United to trigger Wan-Bissaka and Hannibal’s options as they have high resale values.
Lindelof, Varane and Martial could all be let go if United are getting ruthless.
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