Gareth Bale

[Clark28]

Every time I think we're out of the race

 

[Tucker]

Dod adref Gareth Bach.

 

[EJWTartanSpur]

This is a great read and very well argued... and leaves me, for the first time, thinking that it's plausible that he returns.

But I feel like you're discounting Utd pretty easily and supposing that GB prefers us because, well... you want him to. But he hasn't shown any love for the Club since he left. He did nothing for the end of the WHL, didn't even congratulate us on social media for getting to the Champions League Final. I think there's a very good chance he'd go to Man Utd over us.

On the other hand... they've still got Sanchez on the wage bill... so.......... maybe...........

I’m not entirely sure how much he loves us either but I do remember that he was supposedly told to stop making posts about Spurs on social media for fear of a backlash from Madrid fans, I think this was in the first two years of him being there and he had made a few tweets about us.

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

Dod adref Gareth Bach.

Agree

 

[mark87]

Here is an update to my post in this Bale thread on 15th May 2019 (page 9, post #178).

Link

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/gareth-bale.136353/page-9#post-6341439

I wrote the following back then:

“So there is a stand-off between Madrid and Bale with Daniel Levy lurking in the wings. Netflix should produce the box set. High stakes poker and soap opera combined. Nobody, but nobody, is simply going to bale Madrid out (pun intended).”
I added at the end:

It’s all about a 3-way split of £600k per week; what pay cut would the player accept and then how much RM and the other (buying) club pay each. The question is will our chairman be prepared to shell out what’s left of Bale’s annual wages after RM and the player have reached a compromise?”

To clarify what I was saying back then, there’s no question of a transfer fee. Never has been. If I take a huge financial liability off your hands (£90 million or so over three years) I don’t pay you for the pleasure of helping you out. You pay me. To illustrate the point, simply as an example;

Gareth Bale, Real Madrid and Spurs agree to an equal 3-way split to try and resolve the situation. So Gareth accepts a compromise 1/3 cut in his salary to ‘only’ £60 million over 3 years. Real Madrid pays ½ of that £60 million and Spurs pay the other ½ of the £60 million (call that £200k per week and a free signing). Now, there are several ways this could be constructed but an equal 3-way split would be the net result. I’m not saying that’s what everybody would agree to. If the split was 10% from Bale, 40% from RM and 50% from Spurs, the figures would change but the basic principle would be the same.

We are now nearing the end game of this box-set saga.

To update, let’s boil it down to four possible scenarios:

1. Bale stays at RM on £30m p.a., sits on the bench and plays golf

2. Bale takes his young family to China and sees out his playing days there (or with the possible twist he later moves to Europe or USA)

3. Bale stays in mainland Europe, probably Bayern or PSG.

4. Bale returns to the PL, probably United or Spurs.

I suspect (with some evidence but no proof) that Bale’s agent and our chairman are “on the same page” if not exactly in cahoots. This is all playing out exactly as they both knew it would several months ago. RM’s position gets sillier and more desperate by the day. RM have finally come to terms with a (heavily) subsidized loan deal being the only way they can shift GB at some kind of acceptable cost. Which is exactly why Barnett knocked that idea on its head yesterday. A loan deal means GB would still ‘belong’ to RM. But he wants ‘out’. If that costs RM even more, why should Bale and Barnett make things easy? They hold, literally, all the legal cards in this game of poker, which is why RM are using every other nasty tactic they can think of.

1. Bale has to be “prepared to stay” at RM. That’s just his legal position and contractual right. To actually say otherwise he’d be shooting himself in the foot. But people and pundits who take the whole ‘play golf’ stance seriously need to get out more.

2. Bale has to be prepared to consider China. Legally, he’s fulfilling his obligation to Madrid to look at all the options.

3. Bale has to be prepared to consider Bayern and PSG. He’s probably giving them serious consideration. But does he want to uproot to another culture, another foreign language, and play in loads of one-sided matches? I don’t see either as his preferred destination. I’m not sure either club wants him or to help Madrid out.

4. Bale would, I’m sure, consider United. Who wouldn’t? But they’re not the attraction they once were and are they in for him? Manchester isn’t Germany or France but it isn’t London either.

IMO, Bale’s preference is London and Spurs. And that’s a shit-show for RM. Because they’d probably rather deal with Satan, or Boris Johnson, than Daniel Levy. They know this time they’re going to be handed their cojones on a plate. Eriksen and Ceballos were simply warm up discussions for the main event.

People forget it’s 2019 not 1979. A Club can’t just ‘sell’ a contracted player and force him to go to any club. Certainly not a high profile multi-millionaire. Bale has to say yes to the terms and, above all, the destination. RM will naturally want him to go the least costly way possible (to them). Gareth will naturally want to go to his favoured destination, regardless of the cost to RM.

Like I said two months ago, ‘high stakes poker and soap opera combined’. Now enter the hero, or villain, depending on your POV. Daniel’s passed the summer focused on Poch’s main targets knowing that this moment would come in time. His target. Why have we stalled on Llorente? Why did Poch say in his press conference he didn’t know about Llorente? Because he wanted to deflect the question. That squad slot is reserved, just in case. Right wing, left wing, reserve striker, combined. Home grown too.

Meanwhile, it’s unfair on GB because he has to keep his mouth shut throughout the saga while all kinds of shit are spouted by Madrid mouthpieces, English journo hacks, Talkshite pundits and angry keyboard warriors. He’s had his reputation trashed and motives slammed by all and sundry entitled to an ‘opinion’.

It was interesting to see his goal ‘celebration’ in RM’s friendly versus Arsenal. Madrid picked him purely for legal reasons (in the event of a future contractual dispute). I suspect he played for similar reasons as well as just to get some pitch time. He certainly didn’t get carried away that he scored.

Time will tell. Not long left now.

Great read.

Deserves a blue background.

 

[benschiffer]

It’s an enormous if though.

Right? I mean... they're richer than us. And spend more freely. They also fucking love ageing superstar players.

 

[benschiffer]

I’m not entirely sure how much he loves us either but I do remember that he was supposedly told to stop making posts about Spurs on social media for fear of a backlash from Madrid fans, I think this was in the first two years of him being there and he had made a few tweets about us.

Maybe... I mean, he's probably not that sentimental about it. It's pretty well documented that he's slightly BAE about it all. Which is fine, obviously. it's his job, right?

 

[mark87]

Right? I mean... they're richer than us. And spend more freely. They also fucking love ageing superstar players.

I do get a feeling they're trying to stop doing this now, especially looking at their summer buys so far this window and Ole seems to have more interest in the academy than any other recent manager they have had.

 

[benschiffer]

I do get a feeling they're trying to stop doing this now, especially looking at their summer buys so far this window and Ole seems to have more interest in the academy than any other recent manager they have had.

True.

Shit.

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN...

 

[benschiffer]

True.

Shit.

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN...

Do you reckon he'd fancy playing left back?

 

[mark87]

He's at 33s with PP and Betfair at the moment

 

[absolute bobbins]

I don’t want to piss on anyone’s chips (again) but re: Bale’s wages.

If we can cobble them together have any of you factored in the potential cost of a parity clause for Kane?

It doesn’t sound like a clause the club would agree to but Kane had a very strong bargaining position when we last renewed his contract.

 

[Tooiyiddo]

Right? I mean... they're richer than us. And spend more freely. They also fucking love ageing superstar players.

While I would agree with this usually, Herc did mention that there is no way they could afford him without making major changes to a lot of contracts for their staff. Here's what he said:

They would have to re-jig ALL CONTRACTS with present staff. At least four players of theirs would be on a ridiculous amount, beyond what they are in now. And it would seriously impact FFP, even them!

Even though I don't think we will get him (as amazing as it would be!) I also don't think Man U can just stroll up and get him as easily as some people think.

 

[soflapaul]

Here is an update to my post in this Bale thread on 15th May 2019 (page 9, post #178).

Link

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/gareth-bale.136353/page-9#post-6341439

I wrote the following back then:

“So there is a stand-off between Madrid and Bale with Daniel Levy lurking in the wings. Netflix should produce the box set. High stakes poker and soap opera combined. Nobody, but nobody, is simply going to bale Madrid out (pun intended).”
I added at the end:

It’s all about a 3-way split of £600k per week; what pay cut would the player accept and then how much RM and the other (buying) club pay each. The question is will our chairman be prepared to shell out what’s left of Bale’s annual wages after RM and the player have reached a compromise?”

To clarify what I was saying back then, there’s no question of a transfer fee. Never has been. If I take a huge financial liability off your hands (£90 million or so over three years) I don’t pay you for the pleasure of helping you out. You pay me. To illustrate the point, simply as an example;

Gareth Bale, Real Madrid and Spurs agree to an equal 3-way split to try and resolve the situation. So Gareth accepts a compromise 1/3 cut in his salary to ‘only’ £60 million over 3 years. Real Madrid pays ½ of that £60 million and Spurs pay the other ½ of the £60 million (call that £200k per week and a free signing). Now, there are several ways this could be constructed but an equal 3-way split would be the net result. I’m not saying that’s what everybody would agree to. If the split was 10% from Bale, 40% from RM and 50% from Spurs, the figures would change but the basic principle would be the same.

We are now nearing the end game of this box-set saga.

To update, let’s boil it down to four possible scenarios:

1. Bale stays at RM on £30m p.a., sits on the bench and plays golf

2. Bale takes his young family to China and sees out his playing days there (or with the possible twist he later moves to Europe or USA)

3. Bale stays in mainland Europe, probably Bayern or PSG.

4. Bale returns to the PL, probably United or Spurs.

I suspect (with some evidence but no proof) that Bale’s agent and our chairman are “on the same page” if not exactly in cahoots. This is all playing out exactly as they both knew it would several months ago. RM’s position gets sillier and more desperate by the day. RM have finally come to terms with a (heavily) subsidized loan deal being the only way they can shift GB at some kind of acceptable cost. Which is exactly why Barnett knocked that idea on its head yesterday. A loan deal means GB would still ‘belong’ to RM. But he wants ‘out’. If that costs RM even more, why should Bale and Barnett make things easy? They hold, literally, all the legal cards in this game of poker, which is why RM are using every other nasty tactic they can think of.

1. Bale has to be “prepared to stay” at RM. That’s just his legal position and contractual right. To actually say otherwise he’d be shooting himself in the foot. But people and pundits who take the whole ‘play golf’ stance seriously need to get out more.

2. Bale has to be prepared to consider China. Legally, he’s fulfilling his obligation to Madrid to look at all the options.

3. Bale has to be prepared to consider Bayern and PSG. He’s probably giving them serious consideration. But does he want to uproot to another culture, another foreign language, and play in loads of one-sided matches? I don’t see either as his preferred destination. I’m not sure either club wants him or to help Madrid out.

4. Bale would, I’m sure, consider United. Who wouldn’t? But they’re not the attraction they once were and are they in for him? Manchester isn’t Germany or France but it isn’t London either.

IMO, Bale’s preference is London and Spurs. And that’s a shit-show for RM. Because they’d probably rather deal with Satan, or Boris Johnson, than Daniel Levy. They know this time they’re going to be handed their cojones on a plate. Eriksen and Ceballos were simply warm up discussions for the main event.

People forget it’s 2019 not 1979. A Club can’t just ‘sell’ a contracted player and force him to go to any club. Certainly not a high profile multi-millionaire. Bale has to say yes to the terms and, above all, the destination. RM will naturally want him to go the least costly way possible (to them). Gareth will naturally want to go to his favoured destination, regardless of the cost to RM.

Like I said two months ago, ‘high stakes poker and soap opera combined’. Now enter the hero, or villain, depending on your POV. Daniel’s passed the summer focused on Poch’s main targets knowing that this moment would come in time. His target. Why have we stalled on Llorente? Why did Poch say in his press conference he didn’t know about Llorente? Because he wanted to deflect the question. That squad slot is reserved, just in case. Right wing, left wing, reserve striker, combined. Home grown too.

Meanwhile, it’s unfair on GB because he has to keep his mouth shut throughout the saga while all kinds of shit are spouted by Madrid mouthpieces, English journo hacks, Talkshite pundits and angry keyboard warriors. He’s had his reputation trashed and motives slammed by all and sundry entitled to an ‘opinion’.

It was interesting to see his goal ‘celebration’ in RM’s friendly versus Arsenal. Madrid picked him purely for legal reasons (in the event of a future contractual dispute). I suspect he played for similar reasons as well as just to get some pitch time. He certainly didn’t get carried away that he scored.

Time will tell. Not long left now.

Love the post as it really captures the big picture. The three wild cards where the impact is tough (for me at least) to gauge are the value of the image rights, Neymar and Pogba. I am not sure how valuable RM relinquishing the image rights would be. Neymar and Pogba play for clubs who could afford far more of his salary then we could and have players RM is likely interested in. That puts then in a better position with RM but not necessarily Bale. Unless Bale has a strong sentiment for Spurs and London, I just don't know how it happens. DL might have to pull a rabbit out of a hat. But should it come to pass, it will be one of those moments where you remember where you were when you first heard. I don't want to do it to myself but the longer this goes on....

 

[mark87]

If we did get him VDV style...where the hell we gonna play him?? We'll have Son, Moura, Alli, Lamela and looking likely Lo Celso (I know he plays CM too) and potentially Eriksen all playing for the same three or even two positions.

It's this and the financial side of it that makes me feel it just will not happen.

 

[ERO]

This is a great read and very well argued... and leaves me, for the first time, thinking that it's plausible that he returns.

But I feel like you're discounting Utd pretty easily and supposing that GB prefers us because, well... you want him to. But he hasn't shown any love for the Club since he left. He did nothing for the end of the WHL, didn't even congratulate us on social media for getting to the Champions League Final. I think there's a very good chance he'd go to Man Utd over us.

On the other hand... they've still got Sanchez on the wage bill... so.......... maybe...........

Some love shown...

 

[Norgie]

I was at a conference at NWHL yesterday (which was amazing) but after the conference I met the legend that is Clive Allen. Anyway he spoke about his career and happened to mention Bale to China and why he shouldn't go. He then said he would be much better off back here, I then asked well is he coming back? He smiled and said I hope so. But and it is only a but 'I read more into it' it seemed like he knew something. Could be balls of course but I'm still hoping. Anyway what a nice guy he was, signed my kids shirts for me and was happy for anyone to have a picture with him.

 

[hughy]

View attachment 53266

Some love shown...

I often wonder whether the elite footballers have ANYTHING to do with their twitter accounts, or whether it's all thought up/written by their reps.

 

[nailsy]

I don’t want to piss on anyone’s chips (again) but re: Bale’s wages.

If we can cobble them together have any of you factored in the potential cost of a parity clause for Kane?

It doesn’t sound like a clause the club would agree to but Kane had a very strong bargaining position when we last renewed his contract.

I've got no idea about Kane and us, but I think Hercules has hinted that United would suffer because of the parity clauses in several of their players contracts.

 

[benschiffer]

View attachment 53266

Some love shown...

Fair play. I've never seen that before...

Ok. It's done. I'll get the shirt printed up.