Defeated Mourinho gives up on luring Bale

JOSE MOURINHO admitted defeat in Manchester United’s pursuit of Gareth Bale after losing the Super Cup to Real Madrid last night. Goals from Casemiro and Isco downed United in Skopje as Real became the first club in 27 years to win consecutive titles. Mourinho had revealed he would be ready to bid for Bale if the Welshman was not picked by Zinedine Zidane, but claimed any hopes of signing him have now diminished. ‘Clearly the club wants him, the manager wants him and he wants the club, so it’s game over, even before it started,’ Mourinho said. ‘Game over because now everybody

knows he is going to stay at Real Madrid.’ Bale suggested he had not held talks with Real over his future, despite suggestions in Spain that Zidane could allow the Welshman to leave. ‘I haven’t had any conversations with them about that,’ Bale said. ‘I’m just concentrating on my football and trying to get my fitness up as much as I can after not playing for about nine months. ‘I’m not listening to anything, I don’t read anything. Obviously I get told bits and bobs but no, I’m enjoying my football here. I’m playing as much as I can and winning trophies.’ Mourinho was left bitter at Casemiro’s first goal not being ruled offside and saw Romelu Lukaku score on his professional debut despite earlier fluffing an easy chance. The Portuguese — who handed his runner-up medal to a child in the crowd — added: ‘We lost 2-1 which shows the result was short and one of the goals was offside, so with a good video ref it would be 1-1 and extratime. It was a difficult job for Romelu to play against a team that dominate possession. He tried and of course he missed an open goal but he had a good fight with two good central defenders.’ The £75million striker made his first big blunder on 35 minutes — with Real 1-0 up — taking the ball off Ander Herrera’s toe after the midfielder had picked the pocket of Toni Kroos. United were through on goal but Lukaku was five yards offside. Lukaku’s second error was even more glaring and it came after Real had made it 2-0. Paul Pogba’s header was parried into his path just yards out, but he snatched at the opportunity. The effort sailed wide and the Belgian held his head. Just minutes after that staggering miss, Lukaku followed in another shot and this time he stroked the ball past keeper Keylor Navas. Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos are an imposing defensive pair and Lukaku struggled to keep possession. He had the fewest touches of any player in the first half. The ball did not stick, but there were moments of class, too.