MANCHESTER UNITED plan to keep Dan James and frustrate his fan club in the rest of the Premier League.
Brighton and Leeds both want the Welsh flier and will look at a buy or a loan for the season to add his pace to their sides.
The £73million signing of Jadon Sancho pushes James another rung down the first-team ladder, to raise the hopes of clubs on his trail.
But Old Trafford chief Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reluctant to let James go, partly because Marcus Rashford may miss a chunk of the start of the campaign through injury.
And Man Utd could even hand James, 23, a new contract to keep him happy as a squad man and reward him for staying in the camp.
Meanwhile, United will be cursing their judgment for failing to sign Raphael Varane TEN YEARS ago.
United chased the classy France centre-half when he was leaving Lens as a teenager and worked hard with his agent on a deal.
The attempted move was masterminded by Martin Ferguson, the leading scout at the time and brother of legendary boss Sir Alex.
But the Old Trafford money men refused to do the deal because they thought Varane, 28, was too expensive at the time… and he joined Real Madrid instead for just £9m.
The French star has gone on to make 360 appearances for the Spanish giants over the course of a decade.
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He has won three LaLiga titles and four Champions Leagues, while also collecting the World Cup with France in 2018.
But when Solskjaer was asked about the chances of Varane arriving at Old Trafford, he simply laughed off the question.
The Norwegian said: “Varane? I only speak about players when we sign them.”
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