Bale to End Madrid Nightmare with Return ‘Home’

Gareth Bale’s nightmare at Santiago Bernabeu could soon be over.

BBC Sport reports that former club Tottenham are currently in talks to re-sign the Welshman who left for Real Madrid in 2013 for £85m. The north London club also seem to be closing in on Bale’s team-mate, Spanish international Sergio Reguilon.

Bale now 31, scored more than a century of goals for Real and played a significant part in the Spanish giant winning four Champions League titles - a record for a British player.

“Gareth still loves Spurs,” his agent Jonathan Barnett told BBC Sport Wales. “It’s where he wants to be.”

Any Bale move to Tottenham may start out as a loan deal which is likely to suit both clubs. Real are keen to recover costs by off-loading their highest earner, although the biggest hurdle for Spurs to overcome is the player’s wages, about £600,000 per week. The contract has another two years to run.

However there is also speculation that Dele Alli could go in the opposite direction, a makeweight in any potential permanent transfer deal.

Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

Manchester United has also been touted as another destination for Bale should their pursuit of Jadon Sancho end, but Spurs has an emotional pull for the player, Bale having signed there as a 17-year-old from Southampton.

After much success in the Spanish capital indifferent form and a testing relationship with coach Zinedine Zidane has seen the Welshman become marginalized. His reported love of golf and failure to mix with team-mates both serve as negative factors, and you wonder how much of the ‘old Gareth Bale’ remains.

Many have suggested Jose Mourinho’s best days playing the transfer market are behind him.

This seems a move more in desperation and hope than of planning, as the Portuguese struggles to make his Tottenham side tick.

And he may be reading too much too soon into his side’s poor showing in the opening round of Premier League fixtures when Everton came to north London and left with all three points.