Real Madrid have taken a look over to PSG and the insane bid they made for Marquinhos and decided they fancy a bit of that.
Whether the bid for Gareth Bale is €100million or Angel Di Maria (who’d fetch around €25 million anyway) + Fabio Coentrao (who Real Madrid paid Benfica €30 million + Ezequiel Garay for in 2011) + €60 million, Tottenham, like Roma, simply must accept a bid that shatters the barrier into lunacy.
Florentino Perez can be a bit wacky and he’s certainly prone to highly contentious acts, especially when it comes to the transfer market. You have to question whether he’s really thought this one through. The footballing reasons and whether Bale fits the style of play Madrid will adopt for next season, as well as the negative clash Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo could have. One way or another, bidding circa €100million for Bale takes the cake as one of the dumbest moves in sports – right up there with the 10-year, $275 million contract the New York Yankees gave a 32-year-old Alex Rodriguez.
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The media in England have done a phenomenal job of hyping Bale to hill, to the point where people actually believe he’s in the same bracket as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Now I’m not saying Bale isn’t a good player – he is – but Juan Mata doesn’t get this sort of treatment, and the Spaniard has a Champions League medal, a World Cup and European Championship medal among a whole host of others at club and international level, and has been the best and most consistent player in England for the past two seasons.
And then there’s Tottenham. Daniel Levy, for once, needs to put aside that steely determination to add bricks to his reputation as one of football’s toughest negotiators and snap Madrid’s hand off. Forget Bale, because he’s not the last good footballer Tottenham will have. And in Angel Di Maria, if he’s included in the deal, Spurs will have a readymade replacement plus a mountain of cash to use elsewhere.
These are the type of deals – spanning all sports – that turn clubs around. Sure there might be a degree of heartbreak and initial period of mourning and concern for the future, but smart clubs know how to invest when given such monumental gifts. Not everyone has the backing that Chelsea, Manchester City, PSG or Monaco have. But this particular deal, if it involves both players from Real Madrid, will see Spurs add a full-back who’s better than all their current options and addresses their left side for the long term, while also picking up a player in Di Maria, who, at his best, can be an excellent source of goals and assists.
Bale sees this move to Real Madrid as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but the same should be said for Tottenham. Think of what the combination of Franco Baldini and Andre Villas-Boas can do with that money. Roberto Soldado may be in the bag, though we’ll have to wait to confirmation on that one, while the squad also needs depth and quality to perform on multiple fronts, as well as the continuity supplied by youth signings that will allow Spurs to remain competitive well into the future.
I made the point earlier in the summer that Spurs would never get another bid as ridiculous as the one Real Madrid are proposing and should therefore take it. If Bale does break the transfer record then it will be the tipping point in the game, whereby very good but not great players with the right backing from the media can surpass players who, in the football world, legitimately warrant fees in the region of £80-100 million.
How much are Real Madrid being led to believe that Bale, and only Bale, can be the saviour if Ronaldo leaves? After the player’s two-goal performance against Newcastle at White Hart Lane last season, we were asked about Bale’s performance being the best anyone has ever seen in the Premier League (or something similar to that ridiculous line of thinking) and whether he is indeed the best player in the world. Absolutely no mention of players like Iniesta, Schweinsteiger, Pirlo, etc. Marco Reus, who shares similar qualities and can be viewed as a more complete player, only cost Dortmund €17 million and reportedly has a release clause that kicks in next summer at around €30 million. Yet the German isn’t getting that kind of hype, despite finishing as a runner-up in the Bundesliga and Champions League last season, and actually landing Borussia Monchengladbach fourth place in the league the season prior. I don’t know, maybe he is, but we in England aren’t being fed those lines. Something about other leagues being too far away to be relevant, until the Champions League rolls around.
So maybe there is someone at the Bernabeu who will at some point kick some sense into Perez. Maybe that person is Zidane, as were it not for his intervention this summer, Isco would be playing at Manchester City next season. Then what? Spurs’ potential income of around £80 million falls to something in the £40-50 million range. What if Bale has a poor season this term, or picks up a career-damaging injury?
No one will think anything less of Tottenham for giving up the fight on Bale; everyone will think less of Madrid for such an absurd outlay.
Should Tottenham accept Real Madrid’s bid for Bale?
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