Jose Mourinho pushed hard to bring Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane to Manchester United during his time in charge.
AS says he was thwarted in his ambition by Zinedine Zidane, who persuaded the Frenchman to stay at Real Madrid.
The Portuguese had identified United's back line as an area of weakness when he took over at Old Trafford in the summer of 2016.
And having managed French centre-half Varane at the Bernabeu, Mourinho made signing him a priority.
However, Real manager Zidane persuaded Varane to remain in Spain.