Real Madrid star Gareth Bale was a helicopter ride away from joining Manchester United… but here’s why he didn’t then and never will now
Wales wizard has won Champions League three times since moving from Spurs so why would he ever give that level of glory up?
GARETH BALE was a helicopter ride away from joining Manchester United - but it's a ride he didn't take then and now almost certainly never will.
Bale and Manchester United is a subject that just will not go away.
No matter how many times Bale says he is happy at Madrid.
No matter how many times his representatives say the same.
And no matter how many times Jose Mourinho explains that the transfer would not be possible.
The subject flared up again on Sunday in Santa Clare when Mourinho hugged Bale in the tunnel before United took on Real Madrid and reportedly joked "I cannot buy you because you do not talk up!"
Meaning the player needs to make the next move if anything were to happen.
But here was an exchange Bale had with one member of the media after the game which United won on penalties.
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Q: Jose Mourinho says it would be mission impossible to get you to Manchester United.
Bale: There you go.
Q: Is that the way you see it?
Bale: I haven’t said anything.
Q: You continue to be happy at Real Madrid?
Bale: Yes.
Not exactly a concrete denial that a deal could be done but neither the invitation to ‘come and get me’ that Mourinho would want.
The point is why would Bale want to leave?
Last season was plagued with injury but he still returned to come on as a late substitute in Real Champions League final triumph over Juventus.
It is Bale’s third winners medal in club football’s supreme competition.
Bale has been a great success in Spain. His game has gone on to another level.
Of course United would want him but the signs have to come from Bale first and right now there just aren’t any.
Perhaps if Real land Kylian Mbappe from Monaco it could trigger something... perhaps.
To think United almost got him in 2007 when Sir Alex Ferguson had watched the then full-back play for Southampton.
The Saints turned United down as there was a bigger offer from Tottenham.
By the time they tried to hijack his deal to go to Real his value had rocketed.
United had a helicopter ready to intercept Bale and take him to Carrington.
It was a ride he never took and one now he probably never will.
