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It is an attempted courtship that actually started way back in 2008 on the pages of The Telegraph. Jose Mourinho had recently left Chelsea and was beginning life at Inter Milan but was persuaded to write some columns for this newspaper and select a team in the ever popular Telegraph Fantasy League game. Alongside some of his more predictable selections – Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien and William Gallas – Mourinho found room for a teenage left-back who had still not played in a winning Premier League team for Tottenham Hotspur.
The ‘fantasy’ price back then for Gareth Bale was a mere £3.4 million and, despite further flirtation this summer with a player he would dearly love to manage, this predictably named ‘Special Team’ remains the only Mourinho side that has contained the Welshman.
After seeing him start last night in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win, Mourinho finally conceded that the situation is not about to change. “Clearly game over,” he said. “Clearly the club want him, the manager wants him and he wants the club. Everyone knows he is going to stay.”
Bale also did nothing to encourage his suitor and stressed that he had not even felt any need to discuss his situation with manager Zinedine Zidane. “My future is in Madrid,” he simply said.
On what was hardly a vintage night for Bale, it was still easy to see the attraction. Mourinho revealed back in that Telegraph column of 2008 how he had been closely monitoring Bale even when he was playing in the Championship at Southampton. He had also already identified how Bale’s “attacking nature” made him much more than simply a defender and, with Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench here until the 83rd minute, he was able to roam freely. His touch and movement in front of United’s back three caused persistent problems and, as well as smashing the underside of the post in the second half with his weaker right foot, he also provided a deft assist for Isco’s goal.
More than Paul Pogba or Romelu Lukaku, Bale would single-handedly lift United to a different level but it is much harder just now to see how returning to the Premier League would progress his own career. He has just won La Liga and a third European Cup with Real Madrid and, in how his team-mates so dominated possession here in the searing heat of Skopje, a gulf in technical quality was evident.
United’s first shot on target was a tame Lukaku header on the stroke of half-time and, while they were certainly galvanised by the tactical change of pushing Marouane Fellaini up top with Lukaku, they hardly look like a better bet for the big trophies come the end of the season. Something, though, had clearly left Mourinho wondering if a deal just might become feasible. Should Madrid succeed in buying Kylian Mbappe, the dynamic for every attacking player would certainly change and Bale’s opportunities could suddenly become compromised.
With Mourinho again stirring the pot on the eve of this game, it feels like the only immediate hope. “If he’s not in the club’s plans … 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,” Mourinho had said.
- If Gareth Bale joins Manchester United, he will be valued at £6.0m in Telegraph Fantasy Football, but will he make your team? - pick a starting XI now >>
Passage of time may stand in the way of Jose Mourinho signing Gareth Bale after nine-year courtship