Bale will shift shirts, but has the ship sailed?
GARETH Bale has finally changed his tune.
Once upon a time, the Wales superstar would never have entertained the possibility of leaving Real Madrid – publicly at least – but the 28-year-old has openly talked up a summer move in recent weeks.
Ahead of Madrid’s Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, Bale admitted he could ‘never rule out anything in football’ when it came to playing at the Allianz Arena one day.
And, then, after his finest moment yet in a white shirt, Bale delivered near-identical comments to two separate British broadcasting outlets after his heroics in Kiev.
He said: “I have to sit down in the summer and discuss it with my agent” immediately after the game, and then “I feel like I need to be playing every week” a few minutes later.
Crucially, Bale now holds the cards after a man-of-the-match display against Liverpool, which will either serve as a fitting farewell for British football’s greatest ever export or the perfect fillip to win his place back at the Santiago Bernabeu.
When has his stock been higher in recent years?
Despite a lack of starts, Bale has finished the campaign with seven goals in six games, and has been directly involved in 27 goals this season – and managed to keep himself fit since December.
What has irritated Bale, though, is that he played just 99 minutes of Madrid’s Champions League knockout ties in their run to Kiev. Alvaro Morata had a similar issue under Zinedine Zidane last season.
The Frenchman will be open to keeping Bale at the club but you feel this will be an overdue summer of transition at the Bernabeu. Can even Zidane win another Champions League with ‘just’ these players?
For all their riches, Madrid have not spent more than £28m on a player since signing James Rodriguez in the summer of 2014.
Selling Bale, who has not started 30 games in a single campaign since his second season at the club, would help raise further cash for a summer spree.
As the Welshman nears his 29th birthday, in July, there will never be a better time to cash in, so could United be tempted to re-enter the race for a player they have coveted for more than a decade?
The club’s stance has always been that if the right superstar becomes available, they will among interested parties. That opportunistic stance has seen United sign Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez in the last year alone. But has the ship sailed? Jose Mourinho has repeatedly insisted he will not sign a forward this summer, following the mid-season arrival of Alexis Sanchez.
Much will depend on Anthony Martial and whether Mourinho believes he has what it takes to fulfil his remarkable potential in his system.