Yahoo Sport 
How Phil Jones cost Manchester United the chance to sign Raphael Varane
England defender Phil Jones might be to blame for Manchester United missing out on World Cup winner Raphael Varane.
Varane is set to return to Real Madrid after a break following his World Cup triumph. Before he joined his international colleagues for the tournament, he was celebrating his fourth Champions League title after beating Liverpool 3-1.
The 25-year-old defender was crucial to France’s success, and he scored the first goal of their 2-0 win over Uruguay. His presence in the penalty area also led to Mario Mandzukic’s own goal in Sunday’s final against Croatia.
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He cost Real Madrid only 10 million euros when he joined from Lens in 2011, and was rumoured to be close to joining Manchester United before his move to Spain.
Manchester United’s former boss Alex Ferguson wrote in his 2015 book Leading how close he had come to completing the transfer, saying:
“In 2011 I hurtled down to Lille. Zinedine Zidane got wind of this and somehow scooped him up for Real Madrid.”
While it may make sense that Varane would prefer to join Real Madrid, or that Zidane might have been more persuasive in his native French, it was in fact Phil Jones that decided the transfer for Varane, as he provided more competition for first-team football:
“It was the craziest time of my life; I was revising for my exams, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing, I visited Real’s facilities, met Alex Ferguson.
“Manchester United had just signed Phil Jones. My first reaction when Real wanted to sign me was not, “Of course I will go”.
“I only made my decision when I knew that the coach wanted me to play in the first team.”
Manchester United have bought a string of central defenders since Varane’s transfer to Real, including players such as Marcos Rojo, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly and Daley Blind – who has now agreed a transfer to return to Ajax.
