MUCH HAS BEEN made of Gareth Bale’s struggles at Real Madrid this season. After an encouraging debut campaign, the Welshman has frequently come under fire from the club’s supporters this term, infamously having his car attacked in the aftermath of an El Clasico defeat in March.
With his agent, Jonathan Barnett, outspoken in his criticisms of how Bale has been treated by the Spanish giants, speculation remains that the attacker may decide to cut his losses and leave.
But how likely is that and is a move to Manchester United a genuine possibility.
We spoke to Duncan Castles, football writer with The Sunday Times, Sports Illustrated and others, to get the latest.
1) Bale certainly is unhappy but could the arrival of a new manager change that?
Bale has failed to integrate himself into the Real Madrid dressing room. He doesn’t speak Spanish well, and is not enjoying life away from football in Madrid. None of these things are likely to change dramatically if Carlo Ancelotti is sacrificed as coach.
2) What’s Manchester United’s interest like?
Ed Woodward attempted to sign Bale in 2013 by outbidding Real Madrid, albeit in a decidedly naive manner. Since then, he has made it clear that he will take Bale as and when the Welshman came back on the market. Finance is not an object here; the decision comes down to whether Florentino Perez can be convinced to sell.
(3) United already have Angel di Maria and they’ve signed Memphis Depay too. So, how would Bale work with so many other attacking players to consider?
Since Woodward took control of transfer negotiations, United haven’t really recruited with their existing squad in mind – Juan Mata being the prime example of the kind of grab to make a headline signing. With Bale, however, it’s straightforward. Return him to the domineering player he was at Tottenham Hotspur and you have an individual to build a team around and who can win matches by himself. Depay can easily play a part in a squad that contains Bale. Di Maria could too, but will have to be convinced that United – and more specifically continuing to work under Louis Van Gaal – is the right choice for his career.
(4) What kind of money are we talking?
Bale’s agents have told Perez they can return a profit on his 100million euro transfer fee. Woodward offered Tottenham a superior deal in 2013 and would be prepared to exceed that sum again.
(5) Would selling Bale be seen as a defeat for Madrid and Perez and there may be a reluctance to do business as a result?
Well that’s a political and public relations matter. From a sporting perspective they either need to work out a way to keep Bale happy as a footballer and a person in Madrid or take what would be an unprecedented transfer fee and invest it in improving the balance of their team (by signing, for example, Paul Pogba and David de Gea).
In the past, Perez has defended his signings to the death – he famously prevented Jose Mourinho from signing a back up centre-forward when Karim Benzema was the only fit one in Madrid’s squad, simply because he wanted his judgement in recruiting Benzema to be proved correct. Many Madrid supporters would welcome a transfer, some of Bale’s team-mates too.
My information is that the Perez who refused to even consider a sale earlier this season is now wavering on that stance.
You can follow Duncan on Twitter here.
