(Football news) It was back in 2011 when Sir Alex Ferguson was at Raphael Varane’s house, trying to persuade the then 18 year old to depart from Lens and join the Premier League. It’s fair to say that Varane was undoubtedly one of the hottest prospects in Europe a decade ago and his transfer to Manchester United would have materialized if Real Madrid’s sporting director Zinedine Zidane would not have swooped in with a personal telephone call to convince the teenager to join Los Blancos.

It’s been ten years since then and since then, Raphael Varane has become one of the most decorated players in world football. He has won 19 trophies in his career including four Champions League titles, three Spanish titles and a World Cup winners medal. At Manchester United, he is expected to partner with Harry Maguire, who was signed for a club record fee of 80 million pounds from Leicester City. With a spine consisting of Luke Shaw, Varane, Maguire and Wan Bissaka, Manchester United have not looked as defensively solid (at least on paper) since the Ferdinand and Vidic days.

While there has been a lot of talk about “progress” by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the reality is that Manchester United need to win trophies. The Norwegian has been given time by the Manchester United board, more so than any other manager post Sir Alex Ferguson despite having won no trophies, and has been backed in the transfer window. The transfer of Raphael Varane could prove to be the hidden jigsaw that finally transforms this side into title contenders with his experience, winning mentality, talent and composure.

Varane was unveiled at Old Trafford in their opening game against Leeds and is expected to feature in some capacity against Southampton this weekend. St. Mary’s has always been a difficult ground, especially for Manchester United but if Varane can adapt to the physicality of the Premier League, the Red Devils could be serious title contenders. As Sir Alex Ferguson famously said, “attack wins you games, defense wins you titles” and Raphael Varane at 28 still has his best years ahead of him to make his mark in the Premier League.

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