According to the Spanish site AS, Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has been on the phone with Real Madrid this week asking for contractual details of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, along with French defender, Raphael Varane.
The initial response from Madrid was no on all four cases. Real have repeatedly said this summer that Bale and Ronaldo are not for sale.
The Madrid stance on Benzema is not as stringent. The feeling in the Spanish capital is that they are disappointed with strikers performance during the latter part of his 2014/15 season. Despite all the creative players at Real, Benzema finished the season in ninth place in the league scoring table, something I have a hard time understanding. His agent this week said that the French striker wants to retire at Real, but if Rafa Benítez decides to go with Ronaldo as the one striker, that position could change in August.
As for Raphael Varane, he wants to play every week, but he cannot get into the Real team and he is being encouraged to listen to offers from other teams. The possibility of the 22-year-old defender being sold this summer is pretty high and I think he would fit perfectly into the United line-up.
