Real Madrid set to dispense with Bale

Club decide to let him go in the summer

Posted Friday, February 23, 2018 by Marca.com

Gareth Bale's morale has taken a hit in recent weeks as his good start to 2018 subsides into a continued stay on the bench, and the reality is that Real Madrid have decided to put the Welshman up for sale at the end of the season.

Not called upon to start against Paris Saint-Germain or the recent LaLiga clashes against Real Sociedad and Leganes, the winger needs game time to return to form and yet that is something Zinedine Zidane is increasingly unwilling to give him.

It has become infeasible for Bale to block the pathway of younger, potential Ballon d'Or winners like Marco Asensio and as such his situation is unlikely to change between now and the summer.

When signed from Tottenham Hotspur, the hope was that Bale would become the Neymar of Real Madrid, facilitating Cristiano Ronaldo while also able to take the reins and lead the club to glory when necessary.

Los Blancos do not feel as though he has reached that level consistently enough. There is a sense that he performs best when given total freedom to play outside of the collective intent, a role his abilities cannot warrant at such a demanding club.

Furthermore, nobody in Madrid sees the Welshman as a future Ballon d'Or winner or as someone capable of getting close to Ronaldo's level, which cannot be said of rising star Asensio.

Summer Move

Perhaps the last straw has been Bale's injury record, with a total of 25 problems cropping up to account for 78 games missed since joining, a whopping one in three potential outings.

As such, the club hierarchy have accepted that he should be moved on in the summer and it was no coincidence that the Welshman's agent, Jonathan Barnett, recently spoke publicly about his client being worth 222 million euros, the same price Neymar left Barcelona for six months ago.

Nobody at Real expects to reap such a profit for a man who remains their record signing, with 90m euros the amount that would have sufficed in the previous summer should Manchester United have been serious about capturing Bale.