Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale is set to discuss his future at the Spanish club when he meets with the club’s new manager Julen Lopetegui next week, report Sky Sports. The Manchester United target and former Spain head coach are due to meet for the first time since the latter took the reins at the Bernabeu in June, following his unceremonious firing from the national side on the eve of the World Cup.
The meeting will surely shape Bale’s future, given that the Wales international announced in the wake of Real’s Champions League final victory over Liverpool in May that he would be weighing up his options if he wasn’t a guaranteed starter for Los Blancos. Zinedine Zidane’s resignation and Lopetegui’s appointment will presumably have a bearing on proceedings, and the recent sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus may make Real reluctant to sell another big-name player if they cannot guarantee a replacement. Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Paris Saint Germain’s Neymar have both been linked with a move to the club as the reigning European Cup champions look to refresh their squad, but the loss of Bale and Ronaldo in one window is surely not a palatable thought for the La Liga club.
Still, if Lopetegui does not see Bale as a guaranteed starter in his Real side, it could well push the former Tottenham Hotspur winger to seek a move back to the Premier League, something United would surely welcome given that they’ve pursued the player without success on several occasions over the last decade. Jose Mourinho, known to be keen to bolster his options in attack, would be gifted with a world class player in Bale, who at 28 years of age is in the prime of a career that has taken in La Liga success in the 2016/17 season and four European Cups.
