Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is utilising a centre-back partnership which is a temporary fix, offering a glimpse of ‘what might have been’.
Injuries to Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof have left Manchester United’s centre-back ranks looking thinner than usual.
A brief spate of illness saw teenager Willy Kambwala needing to step up, either side of games where Raphael Varane and Jonny Evans have started.
Varane and Evans were excellent in keeping a clean sheet at Anfield, and were largely very good during a recent win over Aston Villa.
The experienced pairing are just a temporary solution. Martinez is close to a return and Maguire and Lindelof could also be back by late January.
There are also doubts about the futures of both players. Varane and Evans’ respective deals are both set to expire in June 2024.
But while they are in the team, they are leaving no doubts at all over their quality, showing their defensive expertise which has seen them rack up 969 club games combined over the course of their careers (Varane 462, Evans 507).
Partnership Sir Alex Ferguson planned
The Raphael Varane and Jonny Evans partnership is one Manchester United fans did not expect to see in 2023, let alone 2024.
But it is one Sir Alex Ferguson had planned to use at Manchester United way back in 2011, when he tried to sign Raphael Varane.
At the time Sir Alex was looking for a way to succeed formidable defensive duo Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, two of the best centre-backs ever to play for the club.
The legendary manager was targeting young defenders to add to his squad, already having Evans coming through the academy, who had contributed to title-winning seasons in 2008/09 and 2009/10, before another in 2012/13.
Chris Smalling was snapped up from Fulham, before Varane was targeted from Lens in 2011. Ferguson was close to securing a deal, before Real Madrid swooped in to win the race.
Varane went onto become one of Real’s best defensive signings, winning four Champions League trophies, while United opted to sign Phil Jones instead.
Evans and Varane would eventually have got a chance to partner up under Ferguson and prove they were the best option, although it was not until 2014 that both Vidic and Ferdinand called it quits.
As pointed out this week by X user UtdHeisenberg: “Varane & Evans – the CB partnership that Sir Alex Ferguson planned to replace Ferdinand & Vidic. Sadly we’re seeing it 12 years too late.”
Varane and Evans route back to United
Jonny Evans was eventually discarded by Manchester United in 2015, selling the Northern Ireland international to West Brom for £6 million, a decision taken by manager at the time Louis van Gaal.
It was a controversial decision, reflective of the upheaval in the post-Fergie era, with Van Gaal wanting to bring in his own players, and try and decisively move on from the Scot, and the brief David Moyes year.
This would likely not have been the case had Sir Alex had his say. He was reportedly stunned at the decision to let Evans leave.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph in 2017, Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill detailed how the legendary Manchester United boss felt.
O’Neill explained: “In September after last year’s Euros, there was a conference in France for the coaches and Sir Alex was there talking about it and he openly said to me that he could not believe Van Gaal had sold Jonny from United.
“Because having seen him come through, he felt Jonny would spend his whole career at United or certainly to the latter stages of his career.”
Evans later signed with Leicester City, where he won the FA Cup, before rejoining Manchester United as a free agent in the summer. It is a deal which was a real surprise, and yet, Evans has looked like arguably the club’s best signing of the recent window.
Varane signed for Manchester United in 2021 when he was looking for a new challenge. He has certainly had that at Old Trafford.
Current boss Erik ten Hag has almost been forced to partner up the two veterans together, due to a lack of available alternatives, and they have hit it off.
The past decade could have been so different if Ferguson had landed Varane as planned back in 2011.
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