No thanks Jose, but you’ll do just great anyway
GARETH BALE may have politely rejected Jose Mourinho’s overtures, but he has offered Manchester United some encouragement for the future.
Bale insists he happy to stay and fight for his place at Real Madrid even in the increasingly unlikely event they land Monaco wonderboy Kylian Mbappe.
And who can blame him when Real have won three Champions League titles, three UEFA Super Cups, La Liga and the Copa del Rey in the four seasons since he joined them from Tottenham?
Real may have looked a class above United when they beat them 2-1 in the Super Cup in Skopje on Tuesday, but Bale is convinced the club who have coveted him for a decade are on the way back to the top.
“They’re getting there,” he said of United’s progress. “Obviously by bringing Mourinho in, it’s kind of boosted the club.
“It did them good to win a few trophies last year and they’re getting back to where they belong. They gave us a difficult game and I see no reason why they can’t be a force in the Champions League this season.
“Jose’s a great manager, he’s done everything in football, he knows what he’s doing and I’m sure he’s building a great team for what he hopes to achieve there. I’m sure they will do fantastic this season.”
It could be construed as damning with faint praise because Real looked comfortably in control for the first hour in the searing heat of Skopje until Romelu Lukaku made amends for an awful miss by pulling one back to spark a late United charge that saw Keylor Navas deny Marcus Rashford and Marouane Fellaini.
But Real coach Zinedine Zidane did not need to give star man Cristiano Ronaldo – only just back after a delayed start to pre-season – any more than a 10-minute cameo at the end as the Spanish champions wound down the clock.
Bale said: “I felt we controlled the game for maybe 60 or 70 minutes. The last 20 minutes obviously they were a couple down, they got one back and had to kind of throw everything at it to win, but we felt like we controlled the game.”
Publicly at least, Bale seems unfazed by Real’s interest in Mbappe as well as the rumours he would be the player to make way if the French youngster ends up at the Bernabeu.
Real president Florentino Perez said after Tuesday’s game: “I am not contemplating selling him. He is a player of Real Madrid, he is important for us and he is one of the best players in the world.”
As for Mbappe, who is valued at £160 million by Monaco, Perez added: “I don’t think there will be any arrivals. We have great players.”
But it seems Bale didn’t need any reassurances. “Obviously I’m happy to fight for my place,” he said. “We’re all fighting for our places anyway. It’s nothing new in football, it happens at every club, you just carry on as normal. The club hasn’t said anything about me being sold.
“We’ve spoken, they’re happy with everything and I just want to concentrate now on getting fit, getting ready for the new season and playing as well as I can.
“There’s been no need for anything to be said. Everything has gone pretty much the same as every year. There’s been
the normal speculation, like there is every year, and obviously it’s been a little bit more hyped up because we were playing Manchester United.
“It doesn’t bother me at all. I really don’t read it. Obviously there’s been a lot of it over the last few days that I get told about. I’ve had it for about 10 or 11 years now so it’s nothing new.
“We enjoy winning games, we enjoy winning trophies and we’re hungry to win everything.
“Everything’s good, the family is settled and we’re enjoying it so there’s not really much more I can say.”
Mourinho, having accepted he will miss out on Bale, predicted that last summer’s big buy Paul Pogba will silence his critics this season.
“The way people analyse him is really unfair. It’s like, because he was so expensive, he should be the man of the match every game,” said the manager.
“I’m totally convinced that this season will be even better for him and that playing in the Champions League against the best teams and players will take some pressure off him.
“In the Europa League last season he was obviously one of the two or three biggest stars.”
United can be a force in the Champions League