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Bale. Could we? Would we? Should we?

The transfer fee is not the issue. No one really cares about that, including RM. It's the 600k a week. A week! ...he is getting paid. The whole Ajax team are paid the same amount as Bale. Even if RM let him come to us on a free, we'd probably want them to pay some of the wages. Which makes the deal very had to imagine. But possible. RM want him off the books, and we offer exciting football and a place to be at home. Question is who is going to pay those wages!? Even if they are 50% of his current wage.

I know he's being paid that, however I think you can take it as a given that we'd only ever get to £150k - £200k p.w., so Real would have to subsidise his wages.

The fee definitely could be an issue though if they want too much for him - signing someone like Bale, at the stage of career which he's at, is simply not the way we operate because generally we can't compete in that market. I saw one reporting talking of a £50m fee, in which case I think you can count us out
 
I know he's being paid that, however I think you can take it as a given that we'd only ever get to £150k - £200k p.w., so Real would have to subsidise his wages.

The fee definitely could be an issue though if they want too much for him - signing someone like Bale, at the stage of career which he's at, is simply not the way we operate because generally we can't compete in that market. I saw one reporting talking of a £50m fee, in which case I think you can count us out

The only way it could happen is if a. Bale insists on CL, b. no other team in the CL want him (for example Chel$ea and c. RM are desperate to get rid of him.

If those things align, then maybe just maybe, but it is far more likley we look to snare the next Bale, and spend the money on a transfer fee - that can be recouped - rather than wages.
 
The only way it could happen is if a. Bale insists on CL, b. no other team in the CL want him (for example Chel$ea and c. RM are desperate to get rid of him.

If those things align, then maybe just maybe, but it is far more likley we look to snare the next Bale, and spend the money on a transfer fee - that can be recouped - rather than wages.

On the latter, I agree. And personally, I quite like us adopting that approach.
 
so pretty much like the VDV signing? that is what it seems like. He still have some good years in him but it all has to align for him to come back. I think the most important thing here is that he has to want to come back. He can go to United and get paid way more. Or go to a team Like Chelsea who just seem to hoover up everybody.

But you never know. he could stay out in Spain with another club.

I think bringing him back not matter the fact that that we wont recuperate any money from his signing. We could recuperate something else. A title hunt and a sign of intent to others. I know a lot dont agree, I also prefer us to sign young hungry players. But Bale is a hungry player, he always has been. But it would be a miracle for this one to happen. So I wont get even a twitch of hope up that this can happen.
 
so pretty much like the VDV signing? that is what it seems like. He still have some good years in him but it all has to align for him to come back. I think the most important thing here is that he has to want to come back. He can go to United and get paid way more. Or go to a team Like Chelsea who just seem to hoover up everybody.

But you never know. he could stay out in Spain with another club.

I think bringing him back not matter the fact that that we wont recuperate any money from his signing. We could recuperate something else. A title hunt and a sign of intent to others. I know a lot dont agree, I also prefer us to sign young hungry players. But Bale is a hungry player, he always has been. But it would be a miracle for this one to happen. So I wont get even a twitch of hope up that this can happen.
We're never going to get him. Wages, transfer fee, injury record, age, etc.

But how good would it be if we did? Imagine those 15 game a season where we struggle to break a team down. Bale could make that difference. If his fitness needs to be managed, bringing him on with half an hour left against tired legs. He was a model professional with us and Wales, but by many accounts hasn't really fitted in at Madrid.

Bale may be a luxury player, but he is still a WEAPON. Sometimes a very good side needs a spark to become a great one, and I think he could be ours.
 
A forward version of final season or two ledley. We could get Lennon and Defoe back too to be Woodgate and gallas

 
Said it before, no one is going to sign this guy now (Madrid might sell for "cheaper", but not free and he has 50M+ wages still in contract)

- A loan with heavily subsidized wages is really the only option open to both parties right now

In that model it could work with us, and if we had the option we have to take it (Spurs will not see that calibre of player any other way)
 
If this is true then Levy must have just been awoken by a disturbance in the force :)

(From BBC article)

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon says it is "impossible" for Gareth Bale to remain at the Bernabeu.
Calderon says Madrid will be prepared to take a financial hit to get Bale away from the club.

"The problem is the salary it is a high salary. He has not been lucky at Madrid since the beginning. Fans thought for the money he would be better than Cristiano and that was really impossible.

"It is a divorce that is difficult to solve. They will find a loan or a transfer for perhaps a low amount of money."

 
HELL NAH if we are paying his 600k a week wages.

Saw a suggestion yesterday that Madrid could let him go for free so long as that left them completely off the hook for him.

Which immediately says we (or someone) would do like we did with Davids.

He comes in on a free, at the top of our wage structure, and with a nice signing on fee/bonus that gets paid out over the length of his contract basically topping up his wages...

Still cant say Im on board with it all, but I wouldnt write it off as undoable for us. The issue would be more in attracting him than paying for him IMO.
 
... transfer for perhaps a low amount of money."

Tottenham-Hotspur-v-Sunderland-Premier-League.jpg
 
Gabriele Marcotti: Ball is in Gareth Bale’s court if he wants to escape his gilded cage at Real Madrid

After two straight games when, despite being fit, he was left out of the squad, Gareth Bale was on the bench for Real Madrid’s final outing of the season against Real Betis. Picked instead by Zinédine Zidane on the wings were two teenagers: Vinícius Júnior, the Brazilian wunderkind, and Brahim Díaz, a January signing from Emirates Marketing Project.

Real lost 2-0, and Zidane sent on three attacking players. Not one was Bale. He was shown laughing on the bench with Toni Kroos, another unused substitute. At the final whistle, he embraced Betis’s fitness coach, Marcos Álvarez, who had worked with him at Tottenham Hotspur a decade ago, and disappeared down the tunnel.

Meanwhile, his team-mates gathered on the pitch to thank the fans who remained and received whistles and abuse to round off the club’s worst season in more than two decades.

The optics were not good. But then, they haven’t been for much of the season. And that’s part of the problem.

Bale is trapped in the classic gilded cage. He turns 30 in July and has three years to run on a contract that pays him more than £600,000 a week. You can count on one hand the clubs who could afford that wage. And, if you were to count the clubs who would happily commit £100 million over three seasons to Bale if they also had to pay a transfer fee, even a cut-rate one, then you would probably not put up any fingers at all.

That is because, for all his Champions League heroics on the way to helping the club lift the trophy on four occasions, Bale is perceived to be on the decline. Over the past four years, he has started just over half of Real’s league games. Some of it has been down to injury, some of it, especially this year, has been down to managerial choice. Both are problematic when it comes to convincing suitors that you are worth £30 million a season.

Much has been made of the club’s attitude towards Bale, as well as that of the fans and the media. He has been as fit as he has been in any season in the past five years, yet he will end the campaign with a mere eight league goals and few performances of note.

In a side who are perceived as successful, it is not a big deal. But Real have had three managers this year, while finishing 19 points behind Barcelona and getting bounced out of the Champions League in the round of 16, after a thorough humiliation by Ajax.

That sort of performance requires spacegoats. And when you are the best-paid player in the team, you will be in the firing line, though, contrary to popular belief, he has not been singled out: there was so much blame to go round that there was a herd of spacegoats.

Thus, we heard about his golf obsession, about how he did not like team-bonding dinners, about how he left one match early when he was an unused substitute and did not come on. The once-popular belief that he would flourish even more once he was out of Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow was debunked, if not ridiculed, particularly when he chose the aftermath of last season’s Champions League final to moan about playing time and talk about a possible move.

The thing about Bale is that, statistically speaking, he has not declined drastically. He has 0.44 expected goals per game in all competitions — a system used to measure the likelihood of scoring from a particular position on the pitch — which is comparable to previous campaigns when they ranged from 0.43 to 0.55. His other metrics are stable, apart from the number of successful dribbles, which have halved from his debut season.

But these are the numbers of an outstanding footballer rather than one of the five best-paid players in the world. For that kind of money, you need a transformational player who can consistently carry a team and/or pack a major commercial punch. Though his cheerleaders will point to outstanding performances, particularly in cup competitions, the reality is that he does neither of those things.

The ball is in Bale’s court. He can sit, play golf, hope that Zidane changes his mind (or is replaced) and continue to watch the money roll in right up until his contract expires on the eve of his 33rd birthday. Or he can challenge himself, take less money elsewhere and possibly extend his career by moving.

The blueprint is provided by Arjen Robben. In the summer of 2009, after a stellar season, he was effectively forced out of Real, who had invested heavily in Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká. He grudgingly accepted a move to Bayern Munich, taking a pay cut in exchange for a longer contract. He ended up staying for ten seasons, becoming a club legend and winning eight leagues titles.

Whether Real and Bale’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, can sell him that idea remains to be seen. They can remind him that he has only a few seasons left before his body, inevitably, starts to decline. And, if he wants to play football at the highest level, he may not be able to do it on his terms.

What is certain is that Real’s front line — with the potential additions of Luka Jovic from Eintracht Frankfurt and Eden Hazard from Chelsea — is not going to be any less cluttered next season. And they are unlikely to build a side around him in the way that they did with Ronaldo and the way that some thought they might do with him when the Portugal forward left a year ago.
 
I pictured him waking bolt upright in bed the moment that was uttered :)

We should go for it if they'll pay off a lot of his wages.

Yeah. Actually, I was thinking the opposite to what the article suggests - a club that wants him could offer to pay a relatively high transfer fee (I.e, 40-50m) on the condition that Madrid subsidize like 75% of his wages for as long as the contract. is active. Might work for Madrid - something's better than nothing, and it looks good from a depreciation perspective, no doubt.

Might also work for the buying team if they can get away with only committing 150k a week to him, making the overall cost of the deal relatively affordable (inclusive of transfer fee) - 50m transfer fee plus roughly 25-35m in wages, add-ons and agent fees would be about what you'd expect to pay for a Van De Beek/Isco-class player in the market anyway.
 
The Robben mention is interesting because I think he will end up at Bayern, as they now have Robben's and Ribery's wages freed up.

Good shout. I can see Bale in Bayerns colours and fitting in well to their style of play.

However, have they got enough cash in the attic to afford him?? Massive club yes, but I don't ever recall hearing Bayern's name mooted when all the high-wage demanding players are banded around? It's usually left to the likes of City, Barca, Real, Juve, even United to compete on the silly wage front.
German clubs tend to be very well run financially and I'm not sure Bayern could (or would) stretch to the higher echelons of Bale's wages, even if subsidised partially by Real.
Lewandowski is their top earner on around £200k, with the likes of Alaba, Kingsley Coman, Neuer and Muller nearer the £130k mark.
Even after the extra from Ribery and Robben going, I'm not sure they'd pull all of that together onto an ageing Bale.
 
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