Levy has enough on his plate with Kane and Alli, so he won’t break the bank for Bale
THE absence of Gareth Bale from the Real Madrid starting line-up was one of the major disappointments in the Parc des Princes earlier this week.
Big players want to play in the big games, and for the Wales international to miss the Champions League clash with Paris St Germain indicates to me that his days at the Santiago Bernabeu are numbered.
There has also been talk of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving the club, but that could really depend on the outcome of the investigation into his tax affairs. Ronaldo is still the main man and if that is the case, it spells the end of Bale’s time in Spain.
If Real Madrid can off-load him for £100 million, he will fund their spending spree this summer. Bale is a fantastic player, one of the greats of the Premier League era, and he would make it stronger. I would love to see him back.
While I am sure Spurs would love to have first option on taking him, and he would be the poster boy for the return to White Hart Lane, I just cannot see it.
Spurs may have the sixthhighest budget in the Premier League but they will only be able to compete with the elite if Daniel Levy is ready to break the bank and rip up his wage structure. He will have enough on his hands keeping Harry Kane and Dele Alli.
Only Manchester City, Chelsea or Manchester United could really afford Bale. But he would struggle to fit in at City and Chelsea would surely only be interested in him as a direct replacement for Eden Hazard (watch this space…)
So that would leave United as the obvious destination but, as we are seeing with Alexis Sanchez, he might struggle to fit into a Jose Mourinho team – although Sanchez’s problem is mainly that he has just not been playing well since his move to Old Trafford.
Tottenham, on the other hand, are where they are, as their Champions League defeat to Juventus demonstrated. They were undone by a bad 15minute spell over the 180 minutes against the Italian champions, who proved that the art of defending is not dying out.
They get a thrill out of it and when you see Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini doing fistpumps for defending their lead, you do wonder why Tottenham couldn’t have done the same to see the game through after they had gone in front.
Spurs were the better team but Juventus simply had more nouse, just like Ronaldo who provided yet another masterclass in making a difference. He proved onceagain that when it comes to the big moments on the big occasion, he delivers.
His goal was his 12th in eight Champions League games and he has now scored in every match. It was a majestic, textbook header at the back post from an excellent cross which gave the goalkeeper Alphonse Areola no chance.
He was good in possession but he did give the ball away a couple of times, which we have rarely seen from him over the years. But if he is out of the game, he only needs a split second to deliver a goal.
Ronaldo is 33 now and he is picking and choosing his moments which makes him so unique. The difference between him and most strikers is that he doesn’t need many chances to score goals.
He can weigh up a situation quicker and better than anyone else, which is what makes him stand out. As for Paris Saint-Germain, for all their talk beforehand, without Neymar they were no threat to Madrid whatsoever and were the other major disappointment of Tuesday night.
They just didn’t live up to all their hype and you have to wonder if they are just a team full of has-beens who are not going to be able to challenge Europe’s elite.
The atmosphere around the streets of Paris on match day was brilliant and inside the stadium prior to kick-off was electric. The noise was incredible and it was set up for the PSG players to go out and get the crowd on their side in that opening 20 minutes. But they did nothing. It was pitiful. I don’t remember Keylor Navas making a save. Throughout the week the PSG coach Unai Emery and his players had said they were ready, even closer because of the loss of Neymar, they’d learned the lessons of the thrashing against Barcelona a year ago. It was all talk and hot air. They didn’t have the legs to compete with Madrid, who brought in Marco Asensio, Lucas Vazquez and Casemiro instead of Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. They were excellent on the night. Thiago Motta is a player I have admired for years and I have always been a big fan of Thiago Silva, but they look a year beyond their sell-by dates now. Silva’s defensive partner Marquinhos looks even weaker and Daniel Alves was frequently exposed, particularly for the first goal. Compare PSG’s centre-backs to the masterclass from Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos, not to mention Mateo Kovacic sitting in the midfield. They were immense. They were organised, they worked hard, covered every blade of grass and managed everything calmly. It was wonderful to see two dominant centrehalves bringing composure to their team in that incredible atmosphere. They just slowed everything down. Over the years, Ramos’s discipline has been questioned but he did his job perfectly and it proved that for all their attacking brilliance, and the goals of Ronaldo, you need real defensive qualities to be the champions of Europe.