Another day, another story about Tottenham wanting to sign Gareth Bale. This time, El Espanyol say Bale only has two choices this summer – stay at Real Madrid or return to Spurs. Vital Spurs have explained how our dwindling reputation and lack of money rules us out of signing Bale, but the media, former players and football pundits can’t resist.
Bale agent Jonathan Barnett played down talk of an exit in July, but his situation in Madrid is untenable. Zinedine Zidane has been public about his desire to sell the 31-year-old and says Bale no longer wants to play under him, so a departure looks on the cards. A return to Tottenham is not going to happen, however.
We don’t have the money
Bale’s asking price is €17m (£15.3m) this summer, but his salary is £350k-per-week/£18.2m-a-year, so he’d break our wage structure if signed. Our revenue dropped due to the Covid-19 pandemic and forced us to change to a sell-to-buy policy.
We signed Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for £15m and sold Kyle Walker-Peters for £12m. We replaced Michel Vorm with Joe Hart on a free transfer and agreed a two-year contract worth £27.5k-per-week/£1.43m-a-year. Every decision we’re making in the transfer market has been about extracting as much value as possible. Bale, while immensely talented, isn’t worth our time.
Injury-prone Bale isn’t a value-for-money signing
The 31-year-old is in the eve of his career and struggled for fitness throughout his time in Madrid – Bale has featured in only 171 of 266 La Liga games (64%), amassing 12,499 minutes from a possible 23,940 (52%). He’s featured in just over half of the games available, so he’d miss too much of the season at Tottenham to be worth bringing back.
Why would he join us?
It’s worth noting that Bale isn’t the same player that left us. He’s won two Liga titles, four Champions League crowns and one Copa Del Rey at Real, so why would he come back? We haven’t won a trophy in any competition since Bale left and Real won the Liga title while we finished sixth last season, so it would be a big step down if he was to return.
In other news, Tottenham could end up paying £40m for Callum Wilson transfer
When Gareth was in the process of leaving N17 for Madrid I wrote that all he could get there was more money–lots and lots of it–and no matter how many championships and Cups, he’d be just another player winning championships and cups at Real. If he stayed and won only one championship with Spurs he’d be loved forever. He went for money over love.
Turns out I was wrong. He wasn’t just another player winning championships and cups at Real. He became the least popular galactico of them all. Made pots full of money, but got no love at all.
Well, it’s too late to come home to this could-have-been N17 love-in, Gareth. You went for the money and now you’ve got no love and you’ve priced yourself out of your old home. Maybe you can play for Cardiff or Swansea on a freebee.
You’ve got more money than you’ll ever need, but not a whole lotta love, and Money Can’t Buy You Love. I think some bin dippers said that back in the 60s. Maybe you can sign with the Toffees.
But not with us. It’s never good to go back to a lover you jilted.
Well this article didn’t age well haha