Gareth Bale is suddenly the talk of town – both in Madrid and Manchester. While Real Madrid are trying to keep him at any cost in the Spanish capital, the view from Manchester is that the Welsh superstar can be lured back to England.

If you have asked the player a week ago, none of this would have made sense. Recent developments – most notably the pursuit of Kylian Mbappe by Real Madrid – is driving this talk of Bale moving out of the club.

Real manager Zinedine Zidane has admitted recently that he cannot guarantee regular playing time for Bale if Mbappe moves to the club. He knows very well that with another superstar coming into his squad, it would be tough on him too to justify regular playing time for all his players.

But the Madrid boss knows the value of the 28-year-old to his team and has urged Florentino Perez to do everything possible to keep Bale with the European Champions this summer (Metro)

The Welsh international is no stranger to Manchester United’s interest. Even when he made the move to Real Madrid, we tried to sign him. Unofficial reports indicated then that we made a larger bid than Madrid – although the veracity of those reports can never be ascertained.

One thing is for sure though – our interest in Bale is long term and Jose Mourinho can go for him, provided the player wants to make the move.

Can Real keep Bale? As things stand, it could be a tricky headache for Real. They sure are going all guns blazing behind Mbappe with all their charmed offensive and the negotiations with Monaco are going in the right direction.

However, if the deal for Mbappe goes through, Zidane will have a serious problem of plenty in his hand. He will have to forego one of his BBC trio – Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, and Cristiano Ronaldo. For now, Bale looks the most expendable of the three – to generate required funds.

Should we go for Bale? Again, another tricky question! Financially, Bale’s pursuit is within our grasp but we need to be careful about the intent of the player and the selling club. Bale is also watching the development keenly and if Mbappe joins the club he could be looking at his available options. Hopefully, Red Devils will be there at that moment!