I interviewed a former Manchester United player last week and talk inevitably turned to potential signings this January window and beyond. Gareth Bale is a player who’s been repeatedly linked with a mega-bucks move to Old Trafford – for over a hundred million so the clickbaiters would have it – so naturally we started with the Welshman.

“Never in a million years,” came the reply. His honesty was refreshing, surprising, and the line duly became the headline.

My question to you all now is should it? Should it even be remotely surprising that one of the best players in the world, who is currently playing in the best league in the world, for an illustrious club that has reached the semi-final stage of the Champions League five years running contemplate for a millisecond leaving this rarefied altitude to join a fading force mired in an identity crisis with a manager who insists on sterile, prohibitive football.

Real Madrid are presently in a three-way shoot-out for the La Liga title and are 5-1 with most bookies to secure their second Champions League triumph in three years. United meanwhile are taking advantage of an open league by remaining in contention for a top four spot. It’s a fourth place finish they’ve battled with Spurs, Everton, Southampton et al to attain for three years now.

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Historically and prestigiously there is little between them. Presently however they are world’s apart.

Yet the clickbaiters continue with their ridiculous claims knowing full well there’s a multitude of Reds out there who are still to square their lofty interpretation of their club with reality. So the made-up nonsense is shared. Believed.

“We’re Manchester United. Of course he will want to come to us”. This appears to be the common Red consensus. No, you were Manchester United. Or at least in the sense you’re alluding to. And you probably will be again in the not-too-distant future but right here, right now there is as much credence to Neymar joining Spurs or Neuer heading to West Ham as there is to Gareth Bale or Cristiano Ronaldo wearing a Manchester United shirt next season.

Ah but surely the history and standing of the club will be sufficient to lure them? ‘You don’t turn down Manchester United’, the Busby Babes, The Theatre of Dreams and all that malarkey. Good try but it appears I’m going to have to break this one down.

While Bale grew up watching United win title after title and while Ronaldo undeniably has an emotional attachment to the club empirically footballers of their status do not let romance cloud their judgement when it comes to their personal legacy. They most certainly don’t let it jeopardise their legacy. Their legacy – and the silverware that comes with it –is everything. With a fortune equivalent to a small nation’s GDP in their bank account their primary concerns from hereon in are threefold: how successful is the club at present; how successful will they be during my time there; who is the manager and what kind of football does he espouse.

In comparison to Madrid, Juventus, Manchester City, PSG and several other notable European clubs United fall well short in all three of these criteria.

Should United fail in their quest to secure a top four place this season perhaps only then will reality truly bite – when the mirror clears to reveal who they really are now – but somehow I doubt it.

If anything I fear their delusions of being a major player – of being capable of attracting the Bales, Ronaldos and Lewandowskis – will only worsen.

And do you know what who can blame them? When not only do the media take full advantage of their reluctance to recognise who they have become but their own club does likewise. Chief exec Ed Woodward’s recent claims that United were not interested in Pep Guardiola (rather than being patently unable to match City or Chelsea) stuck out like a sore thumb as a lie spun to those who wanted to hear a lie and there has been several leaked links credited to him for players United simply cannot attract.

It amounts to pathetic posturing. It amounts to a school bully now working at McDonalds attempting a menacing scowl as he flips your burger.

It took an admirably short time for Liverpool supporters to readjust their self-regard after being knocked off their perch; to acknowledge that who they were holds little relevance to the footballers of the here and now.

How long will it take for United to do likewise?

Bale to Old Trafford? Never in the million years.

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