Jose Mourinho conceded defeat in his efforts to sign Gareth Bale, but the Real Madrid forward is exactly what Manchester United need right now.
Having added Victor Lindelof, Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic to his squad this summer, Mourinho wants a wide attacker to complete the quartet of positions in which he felt he needed to strengthen.
With United's attempts to sign Inter Milan's Ivan Perisic having failed, Mourinho turned his attention to Bale, claiming on the eve of the Super Cup that he would fight to sign him if the 28-year-old were left out of Real's starting line-up.
But Bale started, and while he was far from his imperious best, having only just returned from a lengthy injury which blighted him towards the end of last season, he still managed to set up Real's winner and thud the underside of the bar with a ferocious shot, before he was subbed.
It was a reminder of Bale's enduring value to Real, and why Mourinho was so eager to stir things up on the eve of the final, as United look for the wide man that could prove the difference between being title contenders or mere top-four hopefuls this season.
United's only hope of landing Bale this summer is if Real succeed in signing Monaco's £160million-rated teen sensation Kylian Mbappe, but even then it seems increasingly unlikely the Wales star would be made available at such a late stage of the transfer window.
Mourinho has pace and creativity in the shape of wide players such as Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata, but the United boss clearly wants more.
Lingard was hooked at half-time after an anonymous first-half, Mkhitaryan flickered sporadically, while Martial and Mata remained on the bench. Mourinho may lavish praise on his players publicly, but there is still a sense he doesn't fully trust them all, and wants more of his own signings this summer.
For much of the game, Bale was upstaged by the likes of Isco, Casemiro and Luka Modric. That was until the 52 minute, when his one-two with Isco saw the latter double Real's lead,
It was a reminder of what Bale can bring to the table, even at a time when he has lost his status as an automatic pick and there seems a campaign building among the media and sections of Real fand to see him offloaded this summer.
For now, though, United and Mourinho must look elsewhere, with Bale content to stay in the Spanish capital and prove he remains a key man for Europe's most formidable side.