Out again, possibly until January, it’s safe to say that Gareth Bale will be hoping that a new year brings a new lease of footballing life.
It is clear that the Real Madrid man is one of the best players in the world and that’s not just a throwaway line – it’s clear that the two-in-a-row European Champions are currently struggling without him, even with the likes of Isco, Marco Asensio and Cristiano Ronaldo are still in the team. It’s clear, then, that probably every team in the world would miss Bale.
And yet, Real Madrid have done a lot of missing Bale over the last year or so. The Welshman has missed 40 of his team’s last 60 fixtures, and then you have to factor in that of the 20 he has played in, some will have been when he wasn’t up to full speed, and others will only have been parts of games before he broke down injured again. And so even saying that he’s played in a third of Madrid’s last 60 outings is charitable.
The changing circumstances in the last year and a bit, though, has led to a change of feeling around Bale, too. While you can’t blame a player for getting injured – and surely Bale is the most frustrated person of them all about the fact he’s out of action – there’s a certain school of thought around Madrid that they should perhaps cash in on the Welshman given the squad they have at the moment.
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With Isco and Asensio in particular coming to public consciousness as top players, the fact that there are Spanish equivalents to Bale give the Madrid crowd homegrown players to shout for, and that works against the former Tottenham attacker. In the end, his injuries combined with the fact he isn’t a homegrown boy make it all too easy for his fans to turn on him and want him out.
That could work in the favour of some English clubs, however, if they weren’t spooked by his injury record. But should they be?
For Madrid, Bale has cost over €1m per game, and €13,593 per minute he’s played, and since he joined, he’s played just 159 times, scoring 70 goals.
That’s just one way of looking at his contribution, though. If you measure it by trophies – and there’s no doubt that Bale has played well when he’s played at all – three Champions League titles in four seasons is not to be sniffed at. He has won the league, the cup and both supercups, too – everything there is to win. That’s even before you take into account his international success with Wales in 2016, which won’t matter much to Madridistas, but should be taken into account for any Premier League team who are thinking of taking a punt.
Indeed, there are reports that Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, too, might be keen on bringing the Welshman back to the loving greyness of Britain and away from the scorching heat of scrutiny in Madrid. The Premier League, with its lavish spending and precious little European silverware over the last few years, now has something of a reputation for wasteful overspending, and that might well be one reason for Madrid to believe that they can extract some cash from an English club to recoup some of the money they paid out for the man whose injuries do seem to be becoming a problem.
In the end, though, there are few players in world football who can win games pretty much by themselves. Think Steven Gerrard’s talismanic ability to take the game by the scruff of the neck and Cristiano Ronaldo’s ability to drag it over the line. That’s what you get when you take the form that Bale showed in his final season at Spurs, when he was able to win games individually, and compare it with the bulkiness and maturity he’s gained from four years at the Bernabeu.
And that’s why it shouldn’t just be Manchester United, Spurs and Chelsea who are interested – in fact, even with his north London history, former Tottenham midfielder David Bentley believes that it Arsenal should be the ones trying hardest to tempt the Welshman back to the capital as soon as possible.
With Alexis Sanchez yet to put pen to paper on a new contract, it looks as though the Gunners are going to lose a talismanic player who appears to have fallen out of love with the club. And if they’re smart, they’d replace him with an arguably even more talented world star who has proven that he can be the difference individually, and especially one who has proven it in the Premier League.
As controversial as it would be, Bentley – a man who has crossed that divide in the past and endeared himself to Spurs fans, who were gleeful when he scored against the Gunners in a north London derby – thinks that it’s simply the best option for Arsenal at this point above all else.
“In the January window they’re going to be struggling to get a concrete, long-term replacement,” said David Bentley, speaking exclusively to 888sport.
“It’s a difficult market to operate under because nobody wants to release their players. But for me, if there was an option of going for Gareth Bale – who is available and can have an effect long-term – then Arsenal will pay the wages.”
“[It] would put the cat among the pigeons. [It] would be controversial to say the least. But if you’re looking around the world at the minute for an unknown or a foreign player without Premier League experience then it’s very difficult to get them up to speed straight away.
“There are a few rumours and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was available and £86m would be a snip. Bale can do everything and is one of the best players I’ve ever seen. He’s also commercially good. If they can get him for £86m they can more than manage the £300,000 a week or whatever he’s on. That would be the player I’d target.”
It could be January before Bale gets back to playing again, and when he does, it could be any one of four Premier League clubs he joins if he’s to leave Madrid. But the one that seems to need him most is the one shirt Bale would cause a storm by pulling on.
Read the full 888sport interview with David Bentley, including his thoughts on Arsene Wenger’s treatment of Lacazette.