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News coming out of Madrid last night reported that Zidane wanted the Bale situation moved along faster so this is why he had to come out in a press conference and to say that Bale was on his way. It was a tactical move as is everything at Madrid. A chess game between Perez and the manager. It does not look like relationships are as good as it seems between president and manager and there will only be one winner here.
Bale was brought by Madrid's president Perez to replace Ronaldo. Perez is a business man and his company are the largest construction company in Spain. He doesn't want to waste money and selling Bale to China for next to nothing. He thinks it is not good business. He would save £60 million in wages on Bales contract but he would lose the majority of the transfer fee selling to China. He also likes Bale and thinks he is worth at least 100 million with 3 years of his contract still left to go. He was the guy that extended the deal until June 2022.
The Chinese deal was all but done offered Bale a massive 1 million per week but then something happened to stop the deal from going through. Perez pulled it.
Why?
Real lost 7-3 to their local rivals Atletico Madrid in New York. This was not just a friendly. It was alot more than that.It was a grudge match. There is no love lost here and it was a good sign where the teams are at the start of the season. Atletico have a new team setting down and they were on fire. The money from the Greizman deal helped Diego Simeone bring in some new blood. This Joao Félix looks a steal. But the other target man was the star. Diego Costa scored 4!. 4 and typical Costa then got sent off. I love the man. He man handled Sergio Ramos which is no mean feat. Just threw him aside. The biggest handful in world football. A centre halves worst nightmare. Real were in trouble and had no answers.
Perez panicked and pulled the Bale deal immediately. His thoughts were that Zidane has not improved the team since he took back over last March so he decided Bale was too valuable a player to leave go if the manager wasn't performing.
This may have huge repercussions between Zidane and Perez. Zidane may have to eat humble pie and play Bale seen than Marco Ascensio out out for the rest of the season. Zidane doesn't need the hassle and I think this may push him over the edge. If he doesn't get Pogba he may leave again. And Bale will outlive his manager turned rival once again. Quite a few sources this this is the case. He did not look too worried during the Atletico hammering.
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Bale is not happy with his treatment. He has now refused to travel with the team for their tournament in Munich so we will wait and see what will happen. Interesting time in Madrid for both teams. A small bet on Atletico for the champions league may be in the air after seeing that performance the other night. It's early days but Simeone has quite the squad now. Oh and Kieran Trippier played excellent. It just may be their year