Jose Mourinho: I will try to sign Gareth Bale if he is not in Real Madrid's plans

Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale has been linked with a move to Manchester United this summer Credit: Getty images

Jose Mourinho opened the door to Gareth Bale returning to English football – and Manchester United in particular – saying that if the Welshman is not selected by Real Madrid to play in the Uefa Super Cup game on Tuesday night then it keeps alive the hopes of those who would like to sign him.

Speaking ahead of the game in Skopje, Macedonia, between his United side, the Europa League holders, and Real Madrid, Mourinho said that should Bale be selected for the game then that would end all doubt that the Champions League winners would potentially sell him. However, he added that if Bale ever saw his future away from the Bernabeu, then he would be one of those who would like to sign the player.

Later in the afternoon, Zinedine Zidane, the Real Madrid manager, moved to turn the conversation away from Bale rather than give a definitive answer on the 28-year-old’s future at the club. Bale trained with the squad later and is in contention to start the game, one which Mourinho said would be central to his future in Spain.

Asked whether he had an interest in Bale, 28, Mourinho said: “Well, if he’s playing tomorrow I wouldn’t think of that. If he’s playing tomorrow it’s because he’s in the coach’s and club’s plans and because he has ambition to continue at Real Madrid. I haven’t even thought of possibility of signing him.

“If he’s not in the club’s plans and what you are writing is true, that the arrival of another player then Gareth would be on his way out of Real Madrid, I would try to be waiting for him on the other side and be fighting with the other coaches who would like to have him on their team. If he plays it would be the best confirmation that he will be staying.”

Jose Mourinho
Mourinho's United face Real Madrid on Tuesday night Credit: Getty images

Zidane was asked on three occasions about Bale, saying finally, “Bale is a Madrid player, that is all I can say. What I want to talk about now is tomorrow’s match, a really important match.” Earlier he had said that Bale had found the end of last season difficult, although he played a substitute’s role in the Champions League final victory over Juventus.

“He [Bale] was four months out of the team with injury,” Zidane said. “Now I can see he is much better and he is concentrating on his game. What interests me is what is important for us and not what the coach [Mourinho] says. It is what we are going to do.”

It will be the second time United have played Madrid in pre-season but this time for the one trophy in European football that Mourinho has not won in his career. The United manager faced a number of probing questions about his time at Madrid that ended with a series of dispute with leading players including then goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas. Mourinho defended his legacy vigorously, especially when asked how the current team, with three Champions League titles in four years, compared with his own.

“Well, the basic difference is when I arrived they weren’t even top of their [Champions League] group, it was a team that in spite of all their history they couldn’t get beyond the quarter-final,” he said. “Their most important players had never played in the Champions League semi-finals. When I left it was a team that had played three consecutive Champions League semis, they had been Spanish champions, they had won games at home as well as abroad. So there were small and big differences.”

While Sergio Ramos did his best to be diplomatic about the Mourinho years at Madrid the club captain politely corrected the assertion that the United manager had changed his career during his time at the club. “I don’t think Mourinho has changed my life in football”, he said. He praised the way in which Zidane had “managed the dressing room” at Madrid in an extraordinarily successful 18 months at the club in which he has won two Champions League titles. “He’s a former player,” Ramos said, “and good at that.”

Ronaldo and Real Madrid train ahead of the Super Cup final
Ronaldo and Real Madrid train ahead of the Super Cup final

For his part, Mourinho said that he had never heard Zidane say that he wanted to be a coach during his own time at Real Madrid. He said that he felt what he had achieved at the club had not been acknowledged. “I left and it was difficult for the others to say many good things about me. I’ve never spoken too much or cried or asked for anything I didn’t think I deserved.

“I left feeling quite at ease and that I had nothing left to give. I have never given so much of myself. I left with peace of mind, I left without wanting to take out the dirty linen. Quite frankly I left with that peace of mind, I left to start a new life and that’s it. My main concern is to give everything where I am working. I can truly say that I gave more to Real Madrid any club than I ever have before.”

As for Cristiano Ronaldo, another player who has suggested his future in Spain is uncertain, Zidane said that the club’s leading all-time goalscorer was ready to play. “As you said, there is a lot of noise [around Ronaldo] this summer. He is relaxed. What impresses me the most is that physically he is as fit today as the day of the [Champions League] final.”

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