Manchester United will exhaust every option to sign Jadon Sancho this summer before they turn to alternative targets.
Gareth Bale has been mooted as an alternative to Sancho, should United fail in their bid to land the Borussia Dortmund and England forward this summer.
Bale, exiled at Real Madrid, is open to a move to United, to escape his Bernabeu nightmare, although he is said to favour a permanent move, rather than a loan.
But with the Wales star on £600,000-a-week, United would have to pay half of Bale's wages, just to take him on loan, with the Red Devils not interested in a permanent deal.
Given United's pursuit of Sancho has stalled over the 20-year-old's wage demands – believed to be just shy of £300,000-a-week – taking on Bale, 31, for a similar wage, would make little sense.
In the post Covid-19 football landscape, United, despite their huge wealth and status, want value for money in the market, like any other club, and are unwilling to be held to ransom.
They do not believe Sancho is worth Dortmund's £110million valuation in the current market, nor are they willing to pay over the odds when it comes to his wages.
United have been down that road before, to huge cost, with Alexis Sanchez, an unmitigated flop, with just five goals in 45 games at a staggering cost of £500,000-a-week.
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Against that backdrop, a move for Bale, seven years after they first tried to sign him, makes little sense for United, one that would only be made out of desperation.
Bale is past his peak, made only 14 starts for Real last season and has been surplus to requirements there for the past two years.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's United rebuild has focused on youth, hunger, pace and desire, qualities Bale possessed in abundance in his pomp, but ones that age and injuries have since blunted.
Supporters of Bale will argue he remains a world-class player, one still capable of performing at the highest level, as he proved two years ago with his two-goal cameo – capped with a spectacular overhead kick – as Real beat Liverpool 3-1 in Kiev to win the Champions League.
But since then, Bale has become an outcast, his status having fallen to such an extent that none of Europe's elite clubs has made a concerted move for him, despite his availability.
Tottenham could re-sign him, with Jose Mourinho in need of a forward who can ease the goal burden on Harry Kane, but again his wage demands represent a stumbling block.
Signing Bale would be a regressive step from United, who had been forward-thinking under Solskjaer, making strategic signings that have resale value.
Bale would represent a backward step, one borne out of a failure to land Sancho, with younger and chepaer alternative targets, such as Bayern Munich's Kingsley Coman, making more sense.
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