BREAKING - Bale to Stay at Real!

The Gareth Bale/Zinedine Zidane saga has taken another turn, proving that as in life nothing is ever certain in modern football.

Last week after comments by the French coach there seemed no future at the Bernabeu for the Welsh international.

Now after a ropey pre-season, but more significantly a season-ending injury to Marco Asensio, noises coming from the camp suggest he’s about to remain.

Zidane will see the development as a practical one, despite his clear willingness, in a perfect world, to offload a player he says he has nothing personal against.

That may or may not be true as detailed by Le Journal du Dimanche, as speculation circulates around the Real coach’s concern over Bale’s obsession with golf and the player’s ability to fit-in with the rest of the squad. It’s a widely known fact that Bale’s command of Spanish is not stellar and Zidane is irked that this negatively affects the player’s interaction with the rest of his team-mates.

Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images

The widely reported deal that the forward would join Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning, which owns 70% of Inter-Milan, appears to have been stymied by Real, according to sources, BBC Sport and football-espana.net

Bale, with three years left on his contract, has no desire to leave the club, but you wonder about the future working relationship between not only player and coach, and also the fans who at various times have shown disdain and a lack of warmth towards Bale. That may be insignificant however. Even Cristiano Ronaldo at times ‘got the treatment’ from that most demanding of soccer publics.

Bale, formerly of Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, scored 14 goals and provided 6 assists last season for Real, in 42 appearances.

I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this saga .....