China deal looks broken, so does Bale have future at Real after all?
The Gareth Bale saga took another turn this weekend after his proposed move to Chinese club Jiangsu Suning fell through.
As is ever the case with transfers sagas as drawn out and complex as this one, there’s a fair amount of parties that will be affected by the news that the Welshman looks set to stay in Madrid.
You sense there are more twists and turns to come in this unsavoury transfer story but just where does the latest development leave everyone concerned?
GARETH BALE
LET’S start with the main man himself. FIRST things first, Bale won’t be playing in China as things stand. The £1m-a-week deal seems unlikely to happen before the Chinese Super League’s transfer deadline on Wednesday after Florentino Perez put the brakes on the Welshman’s departure.
So now the bigger question is, if not China, where will be Bale be playing next season?
That’s something that ultimately needs to be resolved.
Will he find another club willing to rescue him from what is fast becoming a nightmare in Spain?
At this stage, it seems highly unlikely.
There were no takers on his high wages ahead of his mooted move to China and, now that Real Madrid have put the kibosh on that deal thanks to a lack of a transfer fee, the chances of a club emerging willing to foot both his wages and a hefty fee seems negligible.
Which seemingly leaves Bale set for a stay in Spain, unless he and agent Jonathan Barnett lower their financial expectations.
That may be more preferable than staying at Real Madrid.
His poor relationship with manager Zinedine Zidane is no secret and it remains hard to see Bale having a future at the club as long as the Frenchman remains.
Of course, Bale’s vetoed move raises questions for the manager as well...
ZINEDINE ZIDANE
“THERE’S no relationship between them, there never was one.”
Those are the latest sound bites from Bale’s agent Barnett on the troubled working partnership of Bale and Zidane.
If Bale does stay, Zidane’s opinion of him is hardly going to change. One French publication printed that Zidane isn’t thrilled with Bale’s attitude and predilection to playing golf after training.
Relations between Bale and Zidane have been strained ever since the Frenchman returned to the Bernabeu – with the two hardly seeing eye-toeye in Zidane’s first spell with the club.
It’s believed the reason Zidane walked from the job days after a third Champions League triumph was because of Perez’s decision to allow Cristiano Ronaldo to leave, rather than Bale.
With Zidane back at the club, it could have been assumed that one of the conditions for his return would be Bale heading the other way at the training ground gates.
The Real boss could hardly have been any less subtle in his intentions either, revealing that it would be “better for everybody” if Bale left the Spanish capital.
Yet Perez’s intervention has completely gone against the manager’s wishes. Regardless of Perez’s reasoning, it’s hardly a good look for Zidane that he is unable to sell a player who he has publicly shopped around through the media.
Having been involved in a power struggle concerning Perez and Bale before, Zidane might soon find himself in another if Bale does indeed stay.
REAL MADRID
SO that’s where the main players currently stand in this saga – but what about the club itself?
Perez’s intervention is reportedly down to wanting a larger fee for Bale, believing he is too valuable to let go on the cheap.
So while Zidane’s stance is sell at all costs, that clearly isn’t the case for Real.
Perez, having been a backer of Bale for so long now, still appears to value the Welshman and that could count for quite a lot.
Particularly in terms of affecting any incomings Zidane may have wanted to make with the money saved on paying Bale’s wages.
Paul Pogba had supposedly been a target for Zidane, but if Bale stays, then it’s hard to see Real getting him with FFP always at the forefront of clubs’ minds.
The nine-month layoff of Marco Asensio might have played a part, but ultimately Perez had risked angering both player and manager by culling this deal for the sake of a bigger fee.
Either Perez believes the extra money is worth it or he knows the situation will still be resolved very soon.
WALES
WHEN his proposed move to China was revealed a couple of days ago, it went down like a lead balloon with most Welsh fans.
Here was Wales’ all-time leading goalscorer and arguably their best-ever player heading to China at the age of 30. It almost seemed like Bale was taking early retirement – in much the same way David Beckham was accused of doing when he left Madrid for LA Galaxy just over a decade ago. Naturally, the big concern was whether Bale could carry on playing international football while playing in the Chinese Super League.
Others have done it. Wales kicked off their current qualifying campaign against Slovakia – captained by talisman and Dalian Yifang midfielder
Marek Hamsik.
Conversely, if he does continue to be frozen out at Real Madrid, could he carry on playing a decent standard of international football in that scenario? The summer’s fixtures with Croatia and Hungary showed signs of Bale’s club problems seeping into his time with Wales, something that has rarely happened before.
Whether Bale is playing in China, Timbuktu or just sitting on the plush seats of the Bernabeu bench, he will still be called up by Ryan Giggs. He’s too good not to be.
But Giggs and everyone involved with Wales will surely want Bale to be joining up from the happiest and most competitive environment as possible as they look to get their Euro 2020 qualification campaign back on track.
MANCHESTER UNITED
THE Premier League outfit might actually get a boost from Bale staying in Madrid. If he doesn’t leave Real this summer, then there is unlikely to be enough wages free to sanction a move for Pogba.
If you believe the papers, that might rob the Old Trafford club of going after Bruno Fernandes and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic with Pogba gone. And then there is the fact that United, along with Tottenham, have reportedly been tracking Bale. However, if Real are keen on a fee and Bale’s wages don’t drop significantly, then that looks like a non-starter.
SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
BALE has outlasted Zidane once before. Does this move to China collapsing indicate that it could happen again?
It’s far too early to read any such conclusions at this stage. But while Perez has overruled Zidane on this matter, the Frenchman’s hardline stance on Bale will remain.
So much has changed in this particular saga, yet so much remains the same.
The best option for all does still seem to be a bitter and timely divorce between Bale and Zidane - with Perez overseeing it all.
The question now is whether that will happen in this window after the latest setback.