Zidane’s treatment of Gareth Bale is a mystery
It has been reported that Real Madrid
blocked a move to China for Welsh
international attacker Gareth Bale.
Jiangsu Suning are hardly a big name,
but with an offer of over a million pounds
a week you can hardly blame Bale for
being interested. Still only 30 years old,
he should have a good many effective
seasons in front of him, yet it is
understandable that he was ready, on
such magnanimous terms, to plunge into
what might be called “gilded obscurity”.
To give Bale his due, he had been
quite ready to stay at Real Madrid, and it
remains somewhat strange that Zinedine
Zidane is so anxious to get rid of him.
Jonathan Barnett, who is Bale’s agent,
accused Madrid manager Zidane of being
Premier League club’s owner Mike Ashley
said: “He took the soft option, took the
money and went to China.”
Soft option? In terms of cash it was
surely a very tempting one. A manager,
far less than a player, has comparatively
little to lose by such a move.
The irony is that Chinese football just
never seems to improve. Where are the
Chinese players in European or South
American football? Perhaps it is coaches
rather than leading players who are
needed for football to develop there
after so many years of sterility.disrespectful to his client. Bale has
played for six largely successful years
in Spain and letting him go made all the
less sense when you take into account a
serious injury and protracted absence of
another key Real attacker in the shape
of Marco Asensio.
Zidane seems to have behaved in a
high-handed way, not giving Bale any
intimation of why he was so keen to get
rid of him. He may well live to regret it.
When Bale came off the bench as a
substitute to score against Arsenal in
a friendly it emphasised the mystery
of Zidane’s behaviour.
After Rafa Benitez left Newcastle
United for a deal worth over £12million
a year to manage Dalian Yifang, theTHE VOICE OF FOOTBALL
Brian
GLANVILLE
Unwanted...
Gareth BaleIt is understandable that Bale was ready, on such
magnanimous terms, to plunge into what might
be called “gilded obscurity”
High-handed...
Zinedine Zidane