David Moyes has revealed that he wanted Gareth Bale to be his first signing as Manchester United manager back in 2013, while the club even had a helicopter at the ready as they attempted to hijack the Welshman's Real Madrid move.
Moyes took over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford in 2013, the same summer that Bales sealed his world record £85m move to Real.
The current West Ham manager has revealed that after earmarking Bale as his number one transfer target, United offered the Wales international a more lucrative wage package than Real Madrid, but this could not deter him from choosing to join the Spanish giants instead.
Meanwhile, the Red Devils signed Marouane Fellaini.
“Gareth Bale was probably the first name I thought of when I got the job,” Moyes explained, via the Evening Standard. “I thought Gareth Bale was a Manchester United player. He was the right type. United have a great history of wide players with George Best up to Ryan Giggs and a whole of lot of other brilliant ones in between.
"I wanted Gareth Bale to be my first signing at Manchester United. But it was already down the road a bit with Real Madrid. I tried to hijack it. I tried to get him. Manchester United offered more money than Real Madrid; they offered more money to the player.
"We did everything we could to try and get the player. We even had a helicopter at the training ground to take him and bring him back. We thought we had a chance.
"But he chose Real Madrid and he made a brilliant decision because he went on to win four Champions Leagues. He's had a brilliant career."
Having fallen out of favour at the Bernabeu under Zinedine Zidane, Bale has since returned to Tottenham and could make his second Spurs debut against Moyes' West Ham on Sunday.
Source: 90min
