Real Madrid shopping Gareth Bale; Chelsea, Manchester United interested — report

Paris Saint-Germain have just confirmed the OUTRAGEOUS!!1½ acquisition of Neymar from Barcelona to the tune of a world record €222 million, and since that money is now burning a hole in Barca’s pockets, Real Madrid are eager to wrap up their deal for Kylian Mbappé before their bitter rivals can attempt to steal a march on them. Monaco know this as well, and are looking to squeeze more money out of Real, even as the deal has looked fairly close already.

But there are other knock-on effects to consider as well, as according to Real Madrid mouthpiece Marca, Zinedine Zidane doesn’t think that Mbappe would be “compatible” with the BBC trio and is thus looking to break them up — after all, one does not spend €200m for a bench player. The ‘B’ who’s apparently drawn the shortest straw and is thus actively being shopped around is Gareth Bale.

Not many teams could afford the Welsh superstar, despite his injury issues, but Chelsea are one them, as are Manchester United. It’s the latter who are supposedly well ahead by showing the “most interest”, though Bale himself has claimed recently that he wants to stay and succeed in the Spanish capital instead.

With Chelsea’s interest rather more of a curiosity than a possibility at this moment, and Real setting their asking price at around €100 million for the 28-year-old, this isn’t anything we should be getting worked up about. That said, trolling Spurs by signing Bale — in addition to the upgrades he could provide in our attack — would be pretty hilarious.