Let’s sign Gareth Bale

Prior to the CL final, the most frequent quoted price for Bale was £75m and most thought paying that much for a player who is injuried half the time too much. Then he comes on the last 20 odd minutes agaisnt a tiring Liverpool team, scores a once in a lifetime goal, is gifted another and the price doubles, even triples.

Bale is still a great player player when healthy, but he will be out injured close to half the time, it is not a wise move at the price Madrid are demanding. Plus we risk falling into that odd problem, spending the whole window chasing a marque signing, while neglecting our problem areas.

Fix the defence and midfield first and if there is time and money left over later in the window take another look at Bale, the situation maybe more to our liking then.
 
Raoul said:
He would have to force a move and then agree to renegotiating his wages if he wants to join us. Wouldn't pay more
than 70m and 250/wk for him given his injuries.
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I can't see Real letting him go for £70 million. They'll be looking to recoup their original investment, or something close to it. He's 28 and a global superstar so, if he stays fit, we'll get 3 or 4 good seasons out of him with all the income from shirt sales and what-have-you too.
 
My concern with Bale, other than his fitness if we signed him, is that we'll dither about the entire window and risk signing other targets. Unless, he is the smokescreen for someone else.
If we are in form him it won't be for the reported fees.
 
I believe if Bale is "really" available, Man Utd will do the deal. He is just so big for marketing and he is a super star. The money men will deal with the numbers and fans no need to worry about it.

*Edit*
I don't understand why people keep mentioned he needs to lower his salary moving to Man Utd because he has no where to go. Messi and CR7 got pay raise when they renewed their contract after age 30 and they "have no where to go" too. It just won't happen.
 
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Moriarty said:
I can't see Real letting him go for £70 million. They'll be looking to recoup their original investment, or something close to it. He's 28 and a global superstar so, if he stays fit, we'll get 3 or 4 good seasons out of him with all the income from shirt sales and what-have-you too.
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If we can get him for what Madrid paid for him then that's still a good deal for us. There has been considerable inflation in the market since they bought him in 2013 but then again he is 28 now, has some degree of reputation of being an injury risk, is not considered a consistent starting XI player for them, and probably only has a few years of top, world beater type football left in his tank. That to me suggests Madrid would have to be flexible in the fee they are asking. Something in the 70-90m range would be plausible along with a lower renegotiated weekly wage that pays him more based on performance incentives. If on the other hand we buy him for something ridiculous like 120m AND maintain his current after tax wage at Madrid, then that would be the worst possible deal for us, since it would put all our risk into Bale, break our wage structure yet again by paying more than what Alexis is making, and prevent us from making other signings since the fee would eat into our transfer budget.
 
In that form, with a chip on his shoulder, he can put the fear of God into defenders. Sanchez is capable of similar menace but obviously hasn't shown it for us yet. If we had them both, fit and on form, running down the wings, this team could spring to life in a thrilling way.
 
ThierryHenry14 said:
I believe if Bale is "really" available, Man Utd will do the deal. He is just so big for marketing and he is a super star. The money men will deal with the numbers and fans no need to worry about it.
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Fair point. It's been a while since United had someone like him on the right wing.
 
ThierryHenry14 said:
I believe if Bale is "really" available, Man Utd will do the deal. He is just so big for marketing and he is a super star. The money men will deal with the numbers and fans no need to worry about it.
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Don't know where this idea that we sign players for marketing reasons comes from.
We are not a joke club.
If there's a deal to be done, I think it will be done for around €100m or even less. Moot point in the end as I think he will stay.
 
Won't adidas have a big say in this could make them a fortune in shirt sales - they could help bank roll it
 
Raoul said:
If we can get him for what Madrid paid for him then that's still a good deal for us. There has been considerable inflation in the market since they bought him in 2013 but then again he is 28 now, has some degree of reputation of being an injury risk, is not considered a consistent starting XI player for them, and probably only has a few years of top, world beater type football left in his tank. That to me suggests Madrid would have to be flexible in the fee they are asking. Something in the 70-90m range would be plausible along with a lower renegotiated weekly wage that pays him more based on performance incentives. If on the other hand we buy him for something ridiculous like 120m AND maintain his current after tax wage at Madrid, then that would be the worst possible deal for us, since it would put all our risk into Bale, break our wage structure yet again by paying more than what Alexis is making, and prevent us from making other signings since the fee would eat into our transfer budget.
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90 million for an injury prone 29 year old?

I hope not but I fear we're capable of taking such silly risks.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
90 million for an injury prone 29 year old?

I hope not but I fear we're capable of taking such silly risks.
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This is the market we are in unfortunately. The market over the past 12-24 months is significantly more inflated than it was 5 years ago when Bale went to Madrid. If Madrid attempted to buy him from Spurs today (assuming he is still 23 as opposed to 28 today) then they would have to fork out about 200m.
 
at least the amount of time he'd be out would mean he wouldn't be taking minutes off Martial... :nervous:

I just can't see us paying the wages he'd want, after seeing the Sanchez leaked contract. He'd want more than that.
 
Great player that I'd love to have at United. But if the figures are getting into the silly zone, I hope we end the speculation right away.
 
If he wants to come here then he will have to force a move and in the process force Madrid to sell at a reasonable price. The only way this will happen imo.
 
Enigma_87 said:
I really hope this rumor goes away...
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Me too. Just want to get back to sensible rumours that actually made sense. What a massive gamble it would be to go for Bale.

What makes me laugh is people complain all season about not making sensible signings and just going for big names like Sanchez, then as soon as Bale scores they're dropping their pants.
 
Raoul said:
If he wants to come here then he will have to force a move and in the process force Madrid to sell at a reasonable price. The only way this will happen imo.
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Yep. If he's not really after the move and doesn't make it crystal clear he wants out, it won't happen. Which is why I think it's probably doubtful, I expect he'll get the reassurances he's after, even though I doubt he'll play much next season either, at which point he'll be a year older and in an even worse position in terms of getting a move.
 
Hope this is put to bed one way or another soon, do not want a summer long transfer saga with Madrid or for De Gea to be dragged into it. Bale would be a quality addition no doubt, but I have faith in our current attackers.

I don't want Willian.
 
Raoul said:
This is the market we are in unfortunately. The market over the past 12-24 months is significantly more inflated than it was 5 years ago when Bale went to Madrid. If Madrid attempted to buy him from Spurs today (assuming he is still 23 as opposed to 28 today) then they would have to fork out about 200m.
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That's the market but we still have a choice to make. So I'd definitely decline. There are still good deals to be made as Liverpool did with Salah.
 
A signing that is exactly what we're don't need, despite obvious talent. Would break wage structure again, disrupt an already fractious dressing room, limit youth playing time, be gone on a free to MLS in 2 seasons (after Jose implodes)and spend our budget on one instead of 3 players that are really needed.

All of which makes me think Ed loves it.
 
Raoul said:
We have good attackers - we just need another player or two to bind it all together.
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Which is exactly why I would prefer signing Eriksen over Bale. We need more of a creative attacking midfielder rather than a forward.
 
Raoul said:
We have good attackers - we just need another player or two to bind it all together.
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Haven't we said that every summer though? I think the issue is more tactical than personnel at this point. Although I do agree, we have gaps in the squad which I'd like to think if fixed will help our overall play. But it gets tiring each summer thinking we've fixed issues only to see the same issues manifest themselves on the pitch over and over again during the season.
 
Beachryan said:
A signing that is exactly what we're don't need, despite obvious talent. Would break wage structure again, disrupt an already fractious dressing room, limit youth playing time, be gone on a free to MLS in 2 seasons (after Jose implodes)and spend our budget on one instead of 3 players that are really needed.

All of which makes me think Ed loves it.
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"fractious dressing room"? according to who?

The youth will get plenty of playing time, don't you realise Bale's injured all the time?!
 
Have said it before and I’ll say it again. If we get all our basic needs covered first and the budget can then be stretched to bring in Bale, then excellent! He’s the type of player fergie would buy if available
 
Judas said:
Why?
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Because Lukaku is entering his second season, Sanchez will be better after a summer's rest and having settled in more, Martial and Rashford are young and will improve a lot over the next 3-4 years. We have to be patient and as much as it would be nice to sign Bale and see him hopefully score 30 in his first season, we have invested time in these quality young players (+Sanchez) for a reason, they will come good.
 
He'll be given assurances of playing time next season and will stay. Would be extremely surprised if this turned out any other way.
 
Raoul said:
We have good attackers - we just need another player or two to bind it all together.
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I agree, we are sorely missing a Scholes/Carrick who can pick a killer pass (Pogba was supposed to do this but is inconsistent). Quality attacking fullbacks will transform our attacking shape too in my opinion.
 
Judas said:
Haven't we said that every summer though? I think the issue is more tactical than personnel at this point. Although I do agree, we have gaps in the squad which I'd like to think if fixed will help our overall play. But it gets tiring each summer thinking we've fixed issues only to see the same issues manifest themselves on the pitch over and over again during the season.
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Tactics are the reason the personnel are not succeeding. That's not to say we shouldn't continue to improve our personnel. Having someone like Fred in midfield, a quality FB, and another attacker would make massive difference. But that would be in terms of adding, not suggesting what we already have are low quality.
 
I'm not doubting the pull or ability of United to get Bale, but he's the very definition of a luxury signing for United.

When you think of the 4-5 players max you'd have behind Lukaku (based on a 442 or 5131 wingbacks with DM setup etc.), who would he even replace as a guaranteed starter?

Not that his injuries suggest he's likely to start every game, but still.

And then, you'd be spending a huge wedge on Sanchez and Bale, who by all accounts are likely to need replacing in 3-4 years time, max, and you're back to square 1 again.


Not sure what Mourinho wants to do, but you'd think he'd ignore the cost and lure of Bale, subject to the squad as-is, although it would be different if Martial, Fellani, Mata all leave this summer.
 
Not as good but if we have £90m lying around,I'd rather we go for Dembele.
 
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