Gareth Bale (Rumour to Deal Done)

[Snarfalicious]

I think the most frustrating thing about all of this is that I honestly have no clue what Bale is thinking about the whole thing. Does he want to leave for real? Is he under orders by his reps/agents to stay quiet as they come up with a new contract? Does he not want to raise tension between his club and Real Madrid by making public statements? Blergh, I hate this.

 

[Trebmint2013]

Perhaps the time has come to just say to Madrid you are a classless club and we will never sell a player to a classless club.

We then tell Bale he can play for us with £170k contract for a year and move to any club that pay £50m, but that we will never sell him to Madrid, and if he wants to go there he can wait out his remaining 3 years, and pay us back the 80k a week which he was given in the improved contract. If he wont play. Hell he doesnt get paid and we spend the £170k x 3 years = 28M on a replacement

 

[Rout-Ledge]

I don't see why Marca is bothering with all this. Levy will have a price in mind and he won't budge from that, no matter what.

 

[RuskyM]

I don't see why Marca is bothering with all this. Levy will have a price in mind and he won't budge from that, no matter what.

Because Madrid (and their fucking fanbase) aren't used to people not letting them get what they want.

Well, beside Barcelona and every other big European team for the past decade.

 

[Snarfalicious]

I hate to keep harping on this, but why would it have to be right now for Bale? How can he not be excited to see what we have brought in (Paulinho/Chadli) and what we might bring in (Soldado)?

He just had a kid not even 6 months ago, he's the biggest superstar in what many would consider the biggest/most popular league in the world and his brand/image is only growing. I just don't understand why he would want to move right now as he will obviously have every opportunity to leave either next season or any other season in which he decides he's ready. The timing just seems really off to me.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

I hate to keep harping on this, but why would it have to be right now for Bale? How can he not be excited to see what we have brought in (Paulinho/Chadli) and what we might bring in (Soldado)?

He just had a kid not even 6 months ago, he's the biggest superstar in what many would consider the biggest/most popular league in the world and his brand/image is only growing. I just don't understand why he would want to move right now as he will obviously have every opportunity to leave either next season or any other season in which he decides he's ready. The timing just seems really off to me.

But I guess on the other hand, Real are the biggest club in the world and are desperate to sign him right now. Our signings have been great but that's nothing really compared to the prospect of playing alongside his idol, Ronaldo, who could well be leaving Madrid in a year or two. In the modern game, players are, on the whole, very impatient when it comes to moves. I imagine this is due in no small part to the role of parasitic scumbag agents.

I'm desperate for him to stay and, frankly, I think we should force him to. But let's get real here: it should come as no surprise that a player would be keen to swap Tottenham for Real Madrid.

Ronaldo wanted to leave United for Madrid despite the fact that United were consistently more successful both in Europe and donestically. If you can't see why Bale would want to leave Spurs for them, imagine how the United fans felt about Ronaldo wanting to!

 

[ostrov]

I wish I was a hacker capable to bring Marca website down for a week. They deserve to get their office smashed to pieces with baseball bats from my standpoint as a Spurs fan.

 

[Snarfalicious]

I wish I was a hacker capable to bring Marca website down for a week. They deserve to get their office smashed to pieces with baseball bats from my standpoint as a Spurs fan.

Operation: Milton is underway...

 

[Spurz]

I think its more of his agent's head turn rather than him. He is reading reports of 100 mil bids and imagining his agent fee if that happens. If he stays he gets peanuts.

 

[GutBucket]

Everyone has a price and nobody is bigger than the club. Levy wrote that statement at the end of season that we will keep our players and improve the team, Sherwood said it was 1000% he won't leave, AVB said team will improve etc.. But even if he leaves it will probably be for record transfer fee. I won't blame him if he does decide to leave, best players want to play with other best players and win throphies or at least have a great chance of doing so.

 

[BillyWhizz]

Operation: Milton is underway...

I could... I could set the building on fire...

 

[mw828]

Bale really pulling out all the stops to get this move. Everything short of going on strike, putting in a written transfer request, or publicly stating to anyone that he wants to move now.

 

[tototoner]

Tottenham will look complete fools if we sell him this summer after so many at the club saying he will definitely stay.

Current sky bet odds

Bale to stay at Tottenham this summer 11/10
Bale to leave Tottenham this summer 4/6

 

[base615]

Bale really pulling out all the stops to get this move. Everything short of going on strike, putting in a written transfer request, or publicly stating to anyone that he wants to move now.

On what evidence are you basing this view?

 

[animalmom]

"Bale really pulling out all the stops to get this move. Everything short of going on strike, putting in a written transfer request, or publicly stating to anyone that he wants to move now. "

Underrated. Wake me up the first time he says he wants to move. Just pay the man his money, a fair wage for a top 5 world player and this all goes away. Quit screwing around with below market rates, he signs his contract extension, and all this is over.

People constantly state that the best want CL, they want to play with the best. In general people don't want to leave 50% wages on the table - the CL, play with the best etc is complete bollocks when you area talking about a top 4 contender.

If he's 'unsettled' it's because he is being ludicrously underpaid in a league and sport where when that happens you can demand a change to get your money. In other sports your ability to do that is much less.

Note, I'm not saying he is being greedy, he is not but I'm convinced players move from settled, good situations like Bale has at Spurs because the bloke across the street will pay you 2x, 3x etc. He clearly doesn't "want to leave" but he also doesn't want to be paid far below what he ought.

 

[Vwbottom]

On what evidence are you basing this view?

I detect a hint of Sarcasm in the post.

 

[animalmom]

your sarcasm detector seems to be well calibrated. others, not so much

 

[Vwbottom]

your sarcasm detector seems to be well calibrated. others, not so much

Must be all that fibre i had for breakfast.

 

[bloodzeed]

we have been good to bale gave him a new contract almost every year?Stuck by him i cant see him doing a modric or berbatov i think he will respect the club and stay

 

[Danners9]

It's most disappointing that the UK press is buying into Marca. After the Fabregas saga, the Modric stuff and even the Ronaldo stuff, people still quote them like they have some kind of credibility. These tactics aren't new and you would have thought the UK media would have picked up on it by now. Ferguson was right when he said they are RM's media vehicle. Those three players did move but they wanted to, as yet there is no evidence Bale does - but because the paper is Spanish, it must be right.

It was surprising (and refreshing!) to see SSN actually compare the Modric quote to the Bale quote - that is 'quote' as in completely made up piece of lazy fiction, ie a lie - from Marca the other day. But then the Guardian, Times and Telegraph printed it word for word as fact. The Guardian then generated TWO bullshit stories off the back of it.

Some basic research would do the trick but then they aren't interested in defending the truth, merely selling and generating web traffic. Quoting other papers as a source is not only very shit but a product of the 24hr news environment that now exists. Fill space, post on twitter, get clicks, get readers, etc etc. Doesn't matter if it's wrong, something new will fill the gap soon enough.

SSN spends half the time advertising Sky shows and the other half repeating the same 20 minute cycle of news all day yet people think it's a serious channel. They have been shown time and time again to delay actual news, hold back stories and make up rubbish - Spurs interested in Carles Puyol anyone? - anything to keep people watching.

Until Spurs announce a new deal for Bale or something else comes along then he will be mentioned in the same sentence as Real Madrid until either a move happens or the window shuts. Let's hope for the new deal and a RM move for Suarez!