Additional contributors: Jack Pitt-Brooke, Charlie Eccleshare, Laurie Whitwell, Dermot Corrigan
Tottenham Hotspur are working on a deal to sign Gareth Bale from Real Madrid.
The exact nature of the transfer, be it a loan or a permanent deal, had yet to be finalised as of Tuesday night, while personal terms still needed to be agreed.
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But Bale is keen to make a remarkable return to the club he left for a then-world-record fee of £85 million in 2013, with Madrid potentially open to paying around half of his £600,000-a-week wages to get a loan deal over the line.
But is this a deal that suits all parties? How can Spurs afford to buy back Bale? And what about Manchester United’s interest in the Welshman? The Athletic explains…
Why do Tottenham want Bale back?
Jack Pitt-Brooke: This move is understood to have come from Daniel Levy rather than Jose Mourinho, and it is the Tottenham chairman who ultimately makes the decisions about transfers, despite what the head coach would prefer.
Charlie Eccleshare: It is Levy driving this deal. “Daniel has a soft spot for Bale, always has,” says one source, adding: “But nobody would say no to Bale.”
Anecdotally, it’s amazing to hear the awe with which people at Spurs still speak about the player, especially when reflecting on things such as the 2010-11 run in the Champions League. You do get the feeling that it would give everyone a big lift.
Bale during Real Madrid training in May (Photo: Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
One source said that, given the relative lack of characters in the dressing room, Bale’s experience and the respect he commands could make a big difference and key players would welcome the move. The Welshman remains a huge name and, at his best, a talent worthy of Spurs’ new £1 billion home, that’s for sure.
But how can Spurs afford it?
David Ornstein: Some eyebrows will be raised in the game at this development. Spurs held a genuine interest in signing Ollie Watkins as a striker or wide forward but were said not to be in a position to move as quickly as — or at the level of finance of — Aston Villa, the club who eventually signed the former Brentford man for £28 million.
With suggestions, as yet unconfirmed, Spurs could cover around half of Bale’s £600,000-a-week salary at Madrid — with the Spanish club continuing to pay the other 50 per cent — that is a significant addition to the club’s wage bill. A swap deal involving a player such as Dele Alli, for instance, was not thought to be a part of initial negotiations.
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Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Spurs’ finances were buoyant. In the club’s last accounts, for the year up until June 30, 2019, they posted pre-tax profits of £87.4 million (a Premier League high), while their wage bill to turnover ratio was 39 per cent, the lowest in the top flight.
The pandemic and the on-going absence of fans has obviously seen Spurs, like everyone else, take a considerable hit financially but, it seems, the strain has not been as bad as the £200 million loss the club feared they would make up until June 2021. A club who initially opted to make use of the government’s furlough scheme to pay some non-playing staff — before reversing the decision — and borrowed £175 million from the Bank of England feel confident enough to try to bring their former hero home.
As The Athletic revealed on Tuesday, a deal to sign Madrid left-back Sergio Reguilon also remains possible, while Jose Mourinho is still on the lookout for a back-up No 9.
Does Bale fancy a return to Spurs, though?
Eccleshare: Yes. Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett told BBC Sport Wales that “Gareth still loves Spurs” and “it is where he wants to be”. People will be sceptical about this but he still speaks enthusiastically about his time at the club, while some sources have described this feeling as genuine enough to contribute to the Welshman potentially returning to north London.
With Wales featuring at the European Championships next summer, Bale has another consideration and is understood to be determined to play regularly in the build-up. His match sharpness is suffering through lack of game time.
Looks like my suggestion and the Welsh secret service might make this actually happen. Welcome home @GarethBale11 https://t.co/V3wOmT4v45
— Cliff Jones (@Cliff_Jones11) September 15, 2020
Laurie Whitwell: “Gareth just wants to play now,” says a source. “It is starting to get to him. He is hurting. The things you hear, that he’s lost the love for it, couldn’t be further from the truth.”
How would Bale fit into Mourinho’s team?
Eccleshare: Most likely as the right-sided attacker in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 (with Son Heung-min on the left), where he would be a big upgrade on Lucas Moura, who currently starts on the right.
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Bale can also operate as a centre-forward in a more fluid front three but not as the out-and-out No 9 that Jose Mourinho wants. The manager will still want another striker as back-up for Kane. Mourinho has repeatedly spoken about big clubs needing to have big players on the bench, so he wants the additional competition up front. One side-effect of Bale’s arrival would be moving Steven Bergwijn, signed in January for €30 million (£27.6 million), further down the pecking order.
Pitt-Brooke: The most obvious place for Bale would be in Son’s role on the left of a front three but where that leaves Son — Spurs’ most consistent forward in recent years — remains to be seen. Another option would be for Mourinho to go 4-4-2 with Bale and Kane up front. Managing the relationship with Kane would be interesting too — he’s been the main man almost since Bale left.
But is Bale the player he once was?
Bale in full flow at West Ham in February 2013 (Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Whitwell: Bale may have to adapt his game as he gets older. But given he is a tactically astute player who responds to coaches’ instructions, that is highly plausible. “He is not gonna be the Gareth Bale that went past Maicon (in 2010) but he’ll always score goals, he’ll always be a threat,” says one insider. “He might have to develop or change position. Maybe he goes to No 10, or maybe he is not a flying winger, more of a passing winger. He can go past someone but he has also got it in his locker to open up a defence with a pass.”
Bale came off at half-time for Wales in the recent Nations League game against Finland on September 3, in a pre-arranged move after his inactivity for Real. But he played the full 90 minutes against Bulgaria three days later and was effective on the right wing, helping to create one chance for David Brooks with a wonderful long pass to Daniel James.
“He trains well, is professional, and really, really on it when he is away with Wales,” says a source. “He’s only 31 and he’s still got the physique and energy levels to play at the top.”
Eccleshare: Bale only played 20 times (14 starts) for Real Madrid last season and, after a string of injuries, is a very different player from when he left Spurs in 2013. But perhaps with more trust from his manager and in an environment where he is comfortable, he can still be an important player for Tottenham.
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Pitt-Brooke: It’s quite hard to compare his level in and out of the Real Madrid team — and with the injuries — to how he’d do playing every week for Tottenham back in the Premier League. It’s been seven years since he left and it’s a massive open question whether he could do it week in, week out for Spurs now. But at 31, he’s not old and the lack of games in the last two or three years might mean he’s fresher than he would be if he had been charging up and down the pitch every week.
But Spurs aren’t the only club interested. What about Manchester United?
Whitwell: United have held an interest in Bale throughout his whole career and at one stage in 2018, a deal looked very plausible. The circumstances this time centre on United looking for alternatives to Jadon Sancho, as negotiations with Borussia Dortmund are at an impasse. The German club want €120 million (£110 million) guaranteed, but United will not agree to that.
Bale, therefore, has been explored as a possible stopgap signing until next summer. The club are ruling out any purchase but have not totally written off a possible loan, albeit with sources suggesting the significant fee requested by Madrid makes even this unlikely. It is also doubtful the Welshman would wish to be seen as any sort of “alternative” option in the transfer window. Sources say Real want more than half Bale’s wages covered but, even if United were only paying 50 per cent, he would become the second-highest-paid United player behind David de Gea, another consideration for executives.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is aware of Bale’s situation and would look at a deal late in the window if the Sancho bid fails. But Spurs’ speed may take that option out of the equation. United are also weighing up the likes of Douglas Costa and Ivan Perisic for that right-wing position.
Why are Real Madrid so keen to sell him?
Whitwell: There is no love lost between Bale and Zinedine Zidane, with someone close to Bale once noting “the pair can’t stand each other”. Another good source points out that Barcelona are not the force they once were so Zidane can leave Bale in the cold and still win the title in Spain.
Zidane and Bale after Real Madrid won the Spanish title at Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano in July (Photo: Diego Souto/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Ornstein: Bale, his wife Emma and their young family are very happy in Madrid and they live a great life. Real Madrid blocking his move to China at the last moment last year caused irreparable damage. He and Zidane communicate very rarely and Bale has become increasingly open to a move — that not long ago seemed impossible — if the opportunity appealed to him.
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Dermot Corrigan: Bale was never really fully welcomed at Real Madrid, even after scoring decisive goals in the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals in his first season (2013-14), but they managed to keep the relationship more or less positive along the way to three Champions League titles in his first four campaigns. Yet Bale gradually fell out of favour under Zidane due to a mix of tactical, fitness, motivation and personality reasons. He might well have left Madrid in the summer of 2018 if Zidane and then Cristiano Ronaldo had not gone first.
Since Zidane returned nine months later, the pair have not got along at all. Zidane said last summer that it would better if Bale left “tomorrow if possible”. When that did not prove realistic, mostly due to Madrid president Florentino Perez demanding a transfer fee, the Welshman was given a few chances to prove he was still a valuable team member, but it is now over a year since his last La Liga goal.
Last November’s infamous “Wales, golf, Madrid” flag soured an already-poor relationship with many local fans and pundits, and the pictures of Bale pretending to sleep with a facemask covering his eyes was his most memorable contribution to last season’s La Liga title win.
Perez has backed Bale — whose signing he was personally involved in — but would now be very relieved to save around €60 million (£55 million) in the wages and taxes that Bale is due over the remaining two years of the contract he signed in October 2016. Madrid desperately need to cut their wage bill, owing to the financial impact of the pandemic and have already allowed James Rodriguez to join Everton for a minimal transfer fee, such was their desire to get the Colombian’s final year of wages (understood to be more than £200,000 a week) off their books.
(Top photo: D Dipasupil/Getty Images)