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It is not accurate to say that the Old Trafford team have missed the Real Madrid pair, as concerns range from salaries to buyback deals.
It wasn’t surprising to hear Gareth Bale and Manchester United mentioned in the same sentence over the weekend.
No matter the economic climate, the condition of the team and the condition of the player, the Real Madrid winger has been perennially linked with a move to Old Trafford.
Unlike last summer, this time the transfer talk actually went beyond spurious talk, as United refused to rule out a late offer for the 31-year-old, who is on a roster of players to be consider an alternative to the first-choice target, Jadon. Sancho.
However, with Tottenham in talks with the four-time Champions League winner and his agent Jonathan Barnett confirming that their client wants to rejoin his former club, Bale appears ready to return to North London.
Does that mean United ‘missed’ Bale? Not quite.
The club certainly saw him as a viable target. It is understood that United spoke with Barnett and Real Madrid, who are very interested in removing him from the salary bill. However, there has never been an official offer on the table.
Also, while Bale was seen as an attractive short-term solution at Old Trafford, several key figures had reservations, given his age, injury history and, most importantly, salary.
Despite the understanding that Madrid would pay half of their £ 600,000 ($ 780,000) weekly salary, Bale would still have been United’s second largest earner, after David de Gea.
Having previously been burned by Alexis Sánchez, the club was understandably reluctant to make the same mistake again by destabilizing its single-player salary structure; the slow initial progress of the negotiations with Sancho was due to the same concern.
However, despite Borussia Dortmund’s intransigence, United have not completely given up on signing the English international.
However, it will be a difficult question with less than three weeks to go in the window, especially as the Bundesliga club insists that Sancho is not going anywhere.
“We need him, there is no question. Everyone was happy that he stayed,” said head coach Lucien Favre. Keystone SDA earlier this week, suggesting that Dortmund has already drawn a line on the issue.
Certainly, it is difficult to see an agreement suddenly reached. Although progress has been made in talks on agent fees, there has been no advance on Dortmund’s € 120 million (£ 108 million / $ 142 million) sale price.
And the closer we get to the transfer deadline of October 5, the more likely United will have to fall back on Plan B.
Bale isn’t the only name on your backup list, after all. Inter’s Ivan Perisic, Juventus’ Douglas Costa and Bayern Munich forward Kingsley Coman are also under consideration.
Meanwhile, it appears that Spurs are also ready to sign another Madrid player that United were interested in.
Bale’s teammate Sergio Reguilón, who spent last season on loan at Sevilla and faced Solskjaer’s side in the Europa League semi-final, is also heading to Tottenham.
United transfer negotiator Matt Judge had been in talks with the full-back about a possible move to Manchester, but an official offer was never made to the Spanish champions.
Madrid wanted to include a buyback clause in any deal for the 23-year-old, something United were never willing to consider.
So as Daniel Levy prepares a final push to land both Bale and Reguilon, United is reviewing its list of alternatives.
An attacker on the right side is still the main focus before the window closes, but whether that ends up being your primary target or a temporary resource, only time will tell.
