"What we've lacked" - Ex-Liverpool ace tips superstar move that could trigger Mane's exit

Former Liverpool player Dominic Matteo has called for what would be the signing of the summer from the Reds – Gareth Bale.

It’s beginning to look increasingly likely that Bale will leave Madrid this summer, as the Welsh international is constantly linked with a move back to the Premier League.

The 29 year-old’s agent recently called the treatment he gets from Real Madrid fans a “disgrace”, per the BBC.

And while Spurs and Manchester United are the two teams most strongly linked with his signature, Matteo, who played for the Reds between 1992 and 2000, thinks Anfield would be an appropriate landing spot.

What did he say?

“It would be a big signing. If he was coming back to England, I’m sure that everyone would take him,” Matteo said on Stadium Astro’s Youtube channel.

“With Bale, when Madrid beat Liverpool in the final, he had that bit of X factor. Liverpool could maybe do with one more X factor player to score in the finals.

“That’s what we’ve lacked that bit of X factor to get us over the line.”

Stick or twist?

In fairness to Matteo, he is not wrong about Liverpool missing an “X factor”. As soon as Mohamed Salah went off in Kiev, the Reds looked totally devoid of any superstar power, the type of superstar power that Bale displayed on that very night to be specific.

Looking at the bigger picture though, where would Bale fit at Anfield? The Salah at striker experiment didn’t really work, meaning the Egyptian will keep his place on the right wing, and Roberto Firmino is crucial to the way Jurgen Klopp sets his team up.

That just leaves Sadio Mane, who has been strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid, with former Southampton teammate Oriol Romeu even saying the Senegalese international is ”ready” to go to the Bernabeu.

Given that Zinedine Zidane is clearly a huge fan of Mane, swooping for Bale will only mean one thing – Los Blancos returning with a bid of their own for Mane, perhaps even one that is too good to be rejected.

The Reds basically have the option here to stick or twist, and fans would surely rather stick with the red-hot Mane over a misfiring Bale.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2FKKFhU