Manchester United have struggled to get back to the top of English and European football since Sir Alex Ferguson retired more than a decade ago. They have changed managers, signed highly-rated players, even brought back Cristiano Ronaldo and yet, nothing has worked out. Perhaps things would have been very different if they had started well in the David Moyes era. But one player chose to join Real Madrid despite the Old Trafford club making the bigger offer.
The player we are talking about is Gareth Bale. He was one of the best players in the world at Tottenham Hotspur.
He would end up joining Real Madrid in 2013 and in many ways, that acted as the catalyst to end the club's decade-plus wait to win La Decima. Since then, they have won the Champions League on six occasions. Bale himself won five and scored in two finals.
He could have so easily ended up at Manchester United though, if things had worked out differently. As reported by FourFourTwo, Moyes said while talking on Up Front with Simon Jordan:
""We made the bigger offer to Tottenham and to the player, we had a helicopter waiting for him, but he had his heart set on Real Madrid.""
Manchester United made bigger offer but legend wanted Real Madrid move
Of course, today, it is easy to see why a player would prefer to join Real Madrid over Manchester United. But back in 2013, the situation had been a bit different.
Manchester United were the biggest club in the world, thanks to their dominance in the Premier League and positive results in Europe. Over the previous five seasons, they had won the Champions League once and made the final two other times, coming up short against Pep Guardiola's legendary Barcelona on both occasions.
On the other hand, Real Madrid had been struggling to win silverware consistently even though they had the biggest names in world football. Many people forget that the Galactico Era was not exactly the most successful on the pitch even though it expanded the club's brand. Also, over Cristiano Ronaldo's first four seasons at Santiago Bernabeu, the club only won two trophies.
In hindsight, Bale made a brilliant decision. Manchester United went on a downward spiral after Ferguson retired while Real Madrid have never stopped winning since then. How different could things have turned out if the Welshman had moved to Old Trafford instead of Santiago Bernabeu that summer?