Zinedine Zidane responds to Jose Mourinho over Manchester United attempts to sign Gareth Bale

Zinedine Zidane has refused to be distracted by Jose Mourinho's mind games after the Manchester United boss claimed that he will try to sign Gareth Bale if the Real Madrid ace doesn't play in the Uefa Super Cup on Tuesday (8 August).

Bale moved to the Santiago Bernabeu in summer 2013 after Los Blancos paid a then world record transfer of €101m (£91.5m, $119m) to lure him from Tottenham Hotspur.

The Welshman appeared to commit his long-term future to Real Madrid in October last year after putting pen to paper on a new six-year deal reportedly worth £350,000 a week after tax.

However, Bale failed to justify such a salary during the last season, scoring just nine goal in 27 games after being hit by different injury problems.

The former Tottenham hero recovered in time for the Champions League final against Juventus, but Zidane decided to bench him to make space for Isco in a 4-4-2 formation.

Speculation linking Bale with a move away from Real Madrid has increased during the summer amid Los Blancos' interest in signing Monaco starlet Kylian Mbappe.

A recent poll made by Madrid-based publication AS revealed that nearly three-quarters of fans would sanction the sale of the Wales international to Manchester United.

Mourinho added more fuel to the saga ahead of their Super Cup clash after claiming that he will try to sign Bale if Real Madrid put him on the market.

"If he's playing tomorrow, well, no I wouldn't think of that possibility of signing on (Bale)," the United boss said. "If he is playing tomorrow, it is because he is in the coach's plans and in the club's plans and because he also has that ambition to continue in Real Madrid.

"So I haven't even thought of the possibility of signing him on our team. If he's not in the club's plans, if what you are writing right now is true - I am not sure whether it is or not - that the arrival of another player [would] perhaps [mean] Gareth would be on his way out. If he is on his way out of Real Madrid, well, I'll try to be waiting for him on the other side and try to fight with other coaches that would also like to have him on his team.

However, Zidane believes that Mourinho was only trying to destabilize his team ahead of Tuesday night's encounter between the two European Champions.

The boss thus refused to confirm whether Bale will start at The Philip II Arena of Spopje but sent a retort to the United boss to make it clear that his only focus is in winning the game.

"Mourinho will set out his team tomorrow and so will I. You can stoke the game up but it'll not change anything," Zidane said in the press conference. "The most important thing is that we're focused. Bale is a Real Madrid player and I'm only interested in talking about tomorrow's match, which is important. We're all here to win tomorrow and I'm not interested in anything else."

"The important thing is that the player is well. He's had a lot of continuity in training with us and that's the most important thing. He was out for almost four months and now he's back. I'm interested in what we're going to do tomorrow."

Mourinho has already made three additions to his squad this summer in the form of Romelu Lukaku, Victor Lindelof and Nemanja Matic. Yet, the United boss is still looking to sign a pacy forward after having been knocked back in their attempts to lure Ivan Perisic away from Inter Milan.