Manchester United Transfer News: Gareth Bale Rumours Cooled by Florentino Perez

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez has given his backing to Los Blancos' superstar Welshman Gareth Bale, effectively cooling the incessant recent reports about the former Spurs man's imminent departure from the Bernabeu.

Bale, along with the rest of the Real setup, have come in for heavy criticism of late after a run of poor results culminated in back-to-back defeats to Athletic Bilbao in La Liga and Schalke in the Champions League.

Bale has long been linked as a target for Manchester United, with The Independent's Pete Jenson suggesting the 25-year-old's recent poor form could open the door for the Red Devils to sign him up.

However, in a surprise Thursday press conference, Perez gave Bale his backing, indicating that he is not about to be shipped out from Madrid, per Spanish football writers Dermot Corrigan and Nicholas Rigg:

Bale has certainly not been in the best of form of late.

He is without a goal since January and had a very poor evening in Real's 4-3 home loss to Schalke on Tuesday—Real qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League despite the loss—per Squawka:

Bale has been on United's radar for some time, the Red Devils missing out on signing him from Spurs in 2013 when he moved to Real for a world-record £85 million.

Reports that he may move from the Bernabeu to Old Trafford then resurfaced last summer and in the most recent transfer window, per Jamie Sanderson of Metro.

However, as Perez points out, Bale is one of the most devastating players in world football and will surely return to form in no time.

He is certainly not the only Real player out of form at the moment. If Thursday's comments from Perez are to be believed, he will not become a casualty of their recent travails, and United will likely have to look elsewhere for summer additions.