Two years ago Gareth Bale was blamed for Real Madrid missing out on Kylian Mbappe. Diario AS claimed that Jose Mourinho had agreed to take Bale to Manchester United in 2017 but he didn’t want to go.
As a consequence a supposed €214million (£194m) deal to bring Mbappe from Monaco to Madrid was scuppered because the French forward did not want come and compete for a place with Bale.
In part, the story was part of an ongoing campaign to depict Bale as the bad guy who was responsible for everything wrong at the club, including the failure to land Mbappe.
But it was also true that had he been happy to go to United at the time and if United were prepared to pay a sizeable fee then Madrid would have had a better shot at getting Mbappe ahead of Paris Saint-Germain.
Fast-forward two years and Bale is again the sticking point for Real Madrid’s transfer plans for the end of next season. He is no longer the make or break for a big deal to happen, but the club are desperate for him to do well enough at Tottenham to make his move away from the Spanish capital a permanent one at the end of the season.
The club failed to make a single signing last summer for the first time in 40 years and they don’t want a repeat in June 2021. Continue reading