Gareth Bale

[Rolaholic]

Sorry don’t buy that, they have a mountain of good young players coming through. They say he’s toxic and he costs 600k a week. Why keep him?

We were down to the bare bones but ole still shipped out Sanchez

Well they've tried to offload him ever since the China move fell through and haven't found any clubs to reel in yet.

It's been reported in the Spanish press this past season that they've come to deeply regret insisting on a transfer fee, probably because he was the most expensive player of all time at one stage, at the last minute which broke things down last summer.

His agent was also publicly insisting that he wanted to stay in Madrid for the longest time even after he became personal non grata up until this summer where he's all of a sudden interested in going back to England after turning down the chance repeatedly when teams were actually interested

 

[dellboyy]

In terms of his attitude, i actually think it's solely related to Madrid. As said, he's been trying to leave, and been blocked. Plus been told by the manager he's unwanted, kinda hard to love a team that treats you like that. Wales has shown he can actually want to play for a side still, and try.

I obviously wouldn't want to see us sign him, but as a backup loan option failing us signing a Sancho, i don't really see an issue. It goes wrong, he gets injured, his attitude sucks, back to Madrid he goes. And we go back to Greenwood.

 

[Kaos]

Again, how is that a pay day??
I don't believe anything till it's actually done. Real is the one with a 600k problem, you think United are going to be tight with the purse strings for Sancho and then suddenly go crazy for Bale???

Ole talking about signing players that grow with the squad is not the same thing as a loan, thats the entire concept of a loan, filling a gap until a permanent option becomes available...hence signing Igahlo

The deal being a possible loan doesn't protect us from the potential ramifications it might have on our squad. What sort of message does it send to our existing best players if we bring in a 31 year old crock who hasn't really played consistently in over a year and seems more interested in playing golf, and making him our best paid player, even if it is for just a season. The Ighalo parallel doesn't make sense either considering he's probably not even amongst our top 10 best paid players.

 

[starman]

Baffling how people can't understand the concept of an overpaid crock

Iam so glad that you are from the future to let us know that United signed him, they decided to pay his full salary and then he got injuried and there's no break in the contract. What about his personality as well? there seem to be a hell of alot of people that know him personally on here apparently...

 

[acnumber9]

We might as well permanently relocate to the Chinese league considering we seem to be a destination for players past their prime seeking one last big pay cheque. Glazers/Woodward would probably love it too.

The amount of mental gymnastics here to justify this as a stellar acquisition too, its like we've learned nothing from Sanchez, and the half a dozen high profile expensive flops before him.

How would he be getting one last pay cheque if he moves to United on loan? He is currently being paid whatever he would get for playing for Man United. Talk about mental gymnastics.

 

[starman]

The deal being a possible loan doesn't protect us from the potential ramifications it might have on our squad. What sort of message does it send to our existing best players if we bring in a 31 year old crock who hasn't really played consistently in over a year and seems more interested in playing golf, and making him our best paid player, even if it is for just a season. The Ighalo parallel doesn't make sense either considering he's probably not even amongst our top 10 best paid players.

Bringing in a 4 times champions league winner and two time PFA awards winner into a team that's essentially won nothing, oh the horror...

If United get the same deal Inter got for Sanchez, paying 30% thats 180k, thats well worth it to risk it for Bale.
Nevertheless, I don't think a deal to pay his wages will be constructed, instead a set loan fee and Real will take care of all his wages

 

[Santoryo]

Come on. These guys are not idiots.

Contractors, fixed term and freelance always have a higher salary than a a permanent employee to compensate for the unsecurity. It's basic business.

If we can't get Sancho, whats the alternative that will bring us value for money?

Yet there were reports of unrest and players like Pogba not feeling comfortable with Sanchez having a bigger contract then him.

People also complained about us giving away absurd amount of money to mercenaries who turned out flopped because it messed up our wages structure which led to us offering mediocre players such as Lingard 100+ and the likes of Rashford and Martial already on 200+ contract before they finally stepped up properly last season.

We've recently started giving much more reasonable contracts to new players coming in(Bruno isn't on some crazy amount) which attracted praise from fans yet people are willing to veer off course that to piss away millions on a crock.

 

[Adamsk7]

Thing is, I’m sure the club would do it’s due diligence on his personality and it would be pretty easy to do so - Giggs, Dan James, De Gea asking any Spanish players at Real....

its worth remembering the quality of the player amongst all that has gone down at Real and his injuries etc. If he were to come and stay fit, he’d be easily in the top 3/4 players in the squad, possibly even the best if he were motivated!

If we can’t get Sancho, he is probably the only player available on loan that would give us similar impact. Let’s face it, regardless of whether you like him or not, he’s one of the best players in the game.

it’s a 15m gamble that has very few negatives. The only one is would he disrupt the team harmony but again, I’m sure we’d find out those things beforehand.

 

[Lynty]

The deal being a possible loan doesn't protect us from the potential ramifications it might have on our squad. What sort of message does it send to our existing best players if we bring in a 31 year old crock who hasn't really played consistently in over a year and seems more interested in playing golf, and making him our best paid player, even if it is for just a season. The Ighalo parallel doesn't make sense either considering he's probably not even amongst our top 10 best paid players.

It doesn't send any message. They are all mature enough to understand that it's a stop gap for 1 season for less than £10m. People act like our players can't think logically.

 

[El Jefe]

The worst thing that can happen is that he's shite and injured regularly like Falcao. He came and went within a year and did no damage to the team in the short or long term.

The minimum Bale has to do here is be better than Lingard, James and Mata which he is easily capable of doing.

 

[Lynty]

Yet there were reports of unrest and players like Pogba not feeling comfortable with Sanchez having a bigger contract then him.

People also complained about us giving away absurd amount of money to mercenaries who turned out flopped because it messed up our wages structure which led to us offering mediocre players such as Lingard 100+ and the likes of Rashford and Martial already on 200+ contract before they finally stepped up properly last season.

We've recently started giving much more reasonable contracts to new players coming in(Bruno isn't on some crazy amount) which attracted praise from fans yet people are willing to veer off course that to piss away millions on a crock.

Sanchez was on a real contract. He wasn't any sort of stop gap. The two don't compare.

Even if we review his salary package as a total. Somewhere in the region of £100m.

Pogba had a right to be upset. Sanchez offered nothing close to Pogba during his time here, and we could have realistically used that (total package of) £100m to sign and pay the wages of someone who could do a job.

The same cannot be said of the approx £10m we'd be paying on Bale for a year

 

[Dirty Schwein]

What is the point in getting someone in on high wages who has a track record of being a disruptive force in the team again?

It's just repeating the Sanchez mistake all over again. Shocking recruitment if he comes.

It's not at all. This is more similar to Falcao. It's a loan.

If Sanchez was a loan, people wouldn't be as up in arms about it because we would just terminate his contact at the end of the loan.

We gave Sanchez 5 year contract on massive wages.

This isn't that. At all.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

China has recently implemented a new rule that yearly salary for a foreign player can not exceed $3m. So no more China for Bale I guess.

Thanks for that.

 

[Rolaholic]

Worth mentioning that Zidane still didn't want him even with those late unexpected injuries but Florentino decided otherwise.

Yea for the longest time Perez had dreams of him replacing Ronaldo as their main man after he left but that hasn't worked out that way and his relationship with Zidane has been terrible.

He was one of Florentino's favorites for years which is why they never really had interest in shopping him around even once he was out of the first team picture and his own agent kept sending near monthly signals that he was more than fine with collecting a generous cheque every week despite not playing much.

Now after everything, Perez finally seems ready to accept the fact that they all need to move one but unfortunately for him, no ambitious club will want to take on his more than generous wages on top of sending them a transfer fee which is why he's in a state of limbo and the only exit strategies floating around in the interim involve loans.

It's an ugly situation all around which is why I want United to actively stay away from it as much as they can...

It would harken us back to the LvG and Mourinho eras of recruitment

 

[roonster09]

I dont know why this is compared with Sanchez deal, is it hard to see the difference between loan player who will stay for one year (and good chance with shared wage % between 2 clubs) and Sanchez who was on 4 year (iirc) deal with insane wages.

Bale won't be our problem, he will be short term fix for a year and then he will be Madrid's problem.

Sancho is obviously first choice for everyone, if we can't sign him then options are watch Lingard, AP play as RW or sign someone on loan as a short term fix. It's not a tough decision to make.

If we end up signing him permanently after the loan deal then yeah, it would be fecked up deal.

 

[ivaldo]

The deal being a possible loan doesn't protect us from the potential ramifications it might have on our squad. What sort of message does it send to our existing best players if we bring in a 31 year old crock who hasn't really played consistently in over a year and seems more interested in playing golf, and making him our best paid player, even if it is for just a season. The Ighalo parallel doesn't make sense either considering he's probably not even amongst our top 10 best paid players.

It says, 'We are serious about improving this squad but we are prepared to wait to bring the right player in. So, we're bringing in a top class player with 4 CL medals to his name to fill the gap until we do. This way, we will improve the team in the short term, giving you a greater chance of winning something.' Players aren't complete idiots. They'll understand the reason for the loan.

If Bale couldn't give a shit about playing, then why would he even bother moving? He could pull a Bogarde and have done with it. But he won't. He evidently wants to get out.

 

[André Dominguez]

Gareth Bale is checking this now at his smartphone:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187052-Activities-c61-t60-Greater_Manchester_England.html

 

[SwedishFish]

I dont know why this is compared with Sanchez deal, is it hard to see the difference between loan player who will stay for one year (and good chance with shared wage % between 2 clubs) and Sanchez who was on 4 year (iirc) deal with insane wages.

Bale won't be our problem, he will be short term fix for a year and then he will be Madrid's problem.

Sancho is obviously first choice for everyone, if we can't sign him then options are watch Lingard, AP play as RW or sign someone on loan as a short term fix. It's not a tough decision to make.

If we end up signing him permanently after the loan deal then yeah, it would be fecked up deal.

Because Bale has been described as desruptive in the Real dressing room AND he's on massive wages. Even if he got a 50 percent wage cut it would still be 300k per week.

Not worth it.

 

[pocco]

Please sign for Spurs, you balding tw*t.

 

[Mickeza]

Gareth Bale scored 2 goals and made 2 assists in 16 league games last year at Madrid.

Okay, that doesn’t count because he isn’t happy there. So let’s look at at his last 2 years of international duty - after all it goes Wales, Golf then Madrid.
He has 2 goals and 2 assists in 12 games.

Dan James who many on here think is useless over the same time for Wales?
He also has 2 goals and 2 assists but in 10 games as he only made his debut last year.

That’s fine though because Gareth Bale has so much more to his game than goals/assists...he’s always been a technical whiz...

A player who completely relied on his explosive burst no longer has it. Yes he still has a good left foot, Wayne Rooney has a great right foot so let’s get him back shall we? This idea that he’s still “top class” is absolute dream world. He is finished at the highest level and the thought of bringing him in and paying him 300k a week just so we have an extra body around the place is madness.

I swear most on this place would think we’ve had an unbelievable summer if we sign Bale for RW, King for CF and Umtiti at CB. All cheap but none of them close to what we need.

 

[Rolaholic]

Honestly quite eye opening seeing the clamor for him after his antics recently given the amount of trivial things that our fans love to slate our own players for

They'd absolutely lose their heads if any of our players acted like Bale has this past year. Reeks of desperation more than anything

 

[golden_blunder]

So for those against the idea, who would you suggest as the backup plan if we can’t sign sancho?

 

[MetoTTT]

Bale and Bellamy and we'll be a good golf club!

 

[roonster09]

Because Bale has been described as desruptive in the Real dressing room AND he's on massive wages. Even if he got a 50 percent wage cut it would still be 300k per week.

Not worth it.

Would rather watch Bale than Lingard, as long as this is a loan deal btw. IMO there is nothing much to lose, we need depth especially this season with insane schedule.

 

[golden_blunder]

The funny thing is a few years ago when the idea of bringing Ronaldo back was floated it was almost the same reaction. He’s over the hill etc

 

[Rolaholic]

So for those against the idea, who would you suggest as the backup plan if we can’t sign sancho?

If we can't sign him period, long term alternatives we should look into should be Leon Bailey, Inaki Williams Chiesa, Chiesa or Traore (would be quite expensive but offer exactly what we'd need). Rashica is also an intriguing prospect but I want to se him at a bigger club first

In the short term, I'd be more comfortable rolling the dice on a Perisic loan like Bayern did, even though he's not a RW by trade, out of all the alternatives we've been linked to this summer. Costa should be a non starter in 2020

 

[MetoTTT]

The funny thing is a few years ago when the idea of bringing Ronaldo back was floated it was almost the same reaction. He’s over the hill etc

The difference is Ronaldo is 100% focused on football, great professional (never been a fan) and almost never injured, Bale 31 on the other hand, still an excellent player but doesn't care anymore, is on massive wages and has a horrible injury record.

 

[Sultan]

Meanwhile Pogba, Martial, Bruno etc are watching Bale cash in more dough then them while chilling in the physio room with Phil Jones. Talk about giving squad harmony the middle finger.

The club had to pay transfer fees for Pogba, Martial, Bruno. Divide that over the course of their contract and you'll find it costs the club more than it would than employing Bale even at 350k a week. If the commitment is there to play football I personally can't see any issues. A large number of fans were saying the same about James Rodrigues. I hope they watched him at the weekend.

No one is equating Sancho with Bale. This is being discussed only if we can't get Sancho. The alternative is to share the game on the right-wing with Greenwood, James, Pareira, Lingard or Mata.

 

[Santoryo]

It says, 'We are serious about improving this squad but we are prepared to wait to bring the right player in. So, we're bringing in a top class player with 4 CL medals to his name to fill the gap until we do. This way, we will improve the team in the short term, giving you a greater chance of winning something.' Players aren't complete idiots. They'll understand the reason for the loan.

If Bale couldn't give a shit about playing, then why would he even bother moving? He could pull a Bogarde and have done with it. But he won't. He evidently wants to get out.

"Serious about improving this squad" with a crock?

People have this mental image of Bale 4 years ago and think that's what they'll be getting. Bringing in an injury prone player who hasn't played much football the last 2 years and isn't the same player he was before injuries took a toll on him isn't any definition of improving the squad. It's simply pissing away money on a crock.

 

[Zlatan 7]

Man. United signing him goes against all OGS has done in last few windoes, it would have Alexis Sanchez vibes.

I think it's far more likely he'll go back to Spurs, can see Mourinho pushing for him and Levy will know that move will get the Spurs fans back onside if their poor start continues.

Signing someone on a loan with reduced wages is totally different to the signing of Sanchez. I don’t know why people are comparing it

 

[monosierra]

I don't know about his attitude or physical game nowadays. It is the fitness/injury record that concerns me. That raises the risk expotentially.

 

[Zlatan 7]

Whilst none of this is incorrect - it is possible for people to be completely unmotivated in a job, then move to a new place of work and become completely re-invigorated.

Happens to lots of people in everyday life. True it feels worse for Bale because he's doing something that any of us would give our right arm to do (not withstanding how that would actually limit our ability to do the actual job) but for him it is still a place of work.

Also if he’d given up in football he wouldn’t bother turning up for wales

 

[Suedesi]

Do not want under any circumstances. The club has fecked up once again by not moving away from Sancho when it was clear BVB weren't going to get bullied, and here we are mid September talking Gareth fecking Bale from Real Madrid for 300k a week.

feck you Ed / Matt.

 

[Zlatan 7]

It's baffling people cant understand the concept of a loan...

 

[Leonzo1]

Gareth Bale scored 2 goals and made 2 assists in 16 league games last year at Madrid.

Okay, that doesn’t count because he isn’t happy there. So let’s look at at his last 2 years of international duty - after all it goes Wales, Golf then Madrid.
He has 2 goals and 2 assists in 12 games.

Dan James who many on here think is useless over the same time for Wales?
He also has 2 goals and 2 assists but in 10 games as he only made his debut last year.

That’s fine though because Gareth Bale has so much more to his game than goals/assists...he’s always been a technical whiz...

A player who completely relied on his explosive burst no longer has it. Yes he still has a good left foot, Wayne Rooney has a great right foot so let’s get him back shall we? This idea that he’s still “top class” is absolute dream world. He is finished at the highest level and the thought of bringing him in and paying him 300k a week just so we have an extra body around the place is madness.

I swear most on this place would think we’ve had an unbelievable summer if we sign Bale for RW, King for CF and Umtiti at CB. All cheap but none of them close to what we need.

Great post. Don't want the guy here under any circumstances. Injury prone, poor mantality, unfit, unmotivated and quite frankly he's just not that good anymore. Even if he puts all his issues aside and buckle down I highly doubt that he'll even come close to his 2012-2017 form.

 

[SwedishFish]

Would rather watch Bale than Lingard, as long as this is a loan deal btw. IMO there is nothing much to lose, we need depth especially this season with insane schedule.

Problem is you won't watch him much as he's constantly out injured. Last 3 seasons he had 13 separate injuries.

 

[ivaldo]

"Serious about improving this squad" with a crock?

People have this mental image of Bale 4 years ago and think that's what they'll be getting. Bringing in an injury prone player who hasn't played much football the last 2 years and isn't the same player he was before injuries took a toll on him isn't any definition of improving the squad. It's simply pissing away money on a crock.

Conversely, people have this image of a crippled pensioner with a beer gut skipping training for a few rounds of golf and a pint. We've seen he still has plenty to offer when he's turned out for Wales. It's unsurprising people will criticise him for barely playing, yet are entirely sure he isn't any good any more despite not actually seeing him play.

Bringing in a player for a year with clear pedigree instead of pissing away another £20/30m on a player that isn't in our long term plans seems comfortably the better option. Though I suppose we could keep hoping James will magically come good.

 

[Zlatan 7]

Some people need to step back and work it through logically

Pros
Loan deal
Loan wages would equate to at most €9-10m for a season
Top class player, 2 footed and useful header
Experienced CL winner
Can play across all front 3
Familiar with PL

Cons
Injuries
RM lies and misdirection to sort through to get to the truth of his personality
He’s got a man bun
He’s good at golf
Some Caf posters don’t like him

It’s amazing how many people with a weird hatred can’t see this

 

[Rolaholic]

It’s amazing how many people with a weird hatred can’t see this

Thing is most of the people against it now would've been all on board a few years ago

Times and circumstances change things, got zero to do with any sort of 'hatred' at all...

We're just going off what he's shown the last 2 seasons where he nor Real have covered themselves in much glory at all during that situation. Metaphorically at least as Real continue to roll on without him

 

[Mickeza]

The funny thing is a few years ago when the idea of bringing Ronaldo back was floated it was almost the same reaction. He’s over the hill etc

Ah Ronaldo. So Ronaldo scored more goals last year than Bale has managed in his last 4 seasons combined. At 35. Not sure you can really compare them. Now if the argument was Ronnie on a loan then I’m on board...