The enigma of Bale

“I understand that they made me more Turkish head than the rest. It's something I didn't attend to much, but I think it wasn't fair. I can't say I'm happy to be playing“Already few remember how far Bale took the leg out of the pot at the beginning of the season, when I was having a relevant role in the team after a summer full of turbulence in which he had a foot and a half in the Chinese Super League. It was just a mirage. Bale has once again become the irrelevant Bale of recent seasons, which disappeared at a stroke after scoring a double in the Kiev final, his last great contribution to the cause.

Forced by the manifest lack of goal of the team and being Bale one of the men more easily to score the squad, Zidane had an attempt at rehabilitation with the Welshman. It was before the two tRare matches against City and Barcelona so unlike luck for Real Madrid. With foot and a half outside the Champions (after 1-2 of the Bernabéu before the Guardiola) and with a predominant position to win the League (one point up after the 2-0 of the Classic with twelve days ahead and better calendar), now It remains to be seen what role Bale will play by the end of the season. It is an enigma that will begin to be solved this Sunday at Benito Villamarín. If you have minutes again your role in the template would be revived facing the visit to Ettihad Stadium next day 17. If not, run the Welsh risk of staying in a limbo from here to end your contract.

A new survey of this newspaper at Bale's most direct environment draws a complicated situation for Madrid. Has the welsh contract until 2022 and charges 14.5 million net per season, the one of the team with Ramos. And, today, “it does not occur to him other than to terminate his contract wearing the Madrid shirt”, They tell us flatly. At this point there is no team interested in getting their services. There wasn't last summer, with the exception of Jiangsu Sunning, who only took care of his card but did not pay transfer. The operation was undone at the same time that Madrid asked for money for the sale. Now, seen his performance this season, it would have been advantageous to let him out for free …

Roller coaster

Zidane dreamed of a trident Bale, Benzema, Hazard at the beginning of the season. That is why he opted for the Welshman from the beginning. That “if you leave today better than tomorrow” was not a malicious phrase, as the Frenchman was responsible for transmitting the player in a private meeting, but a demonstration from the certainty that he was leaving for the Chinese team. That Zidane crowded a Madrid with the BBH for the big occasions, the fact that it was his bet for the first big game of the season, against the PSG in the Park of the Princes. But he was too ambitious and placed James next to Casemiro and Kroos. He fell 3-0 with a crash. And yet, Zidane scored the same eleven in the next game, in a whole Sánchez Pizjuán (0-1 this time). The technician repeated trident before the Atlético en Liga (0-0), another big game. This time with Casemiro-Valverde-Kroos ….

Hazard's ankle injury truncated the idea of ​​BBH de Zidane, that came back to return with the return of the Belgian in the match against him Celtic (2-2). It seemed a general rehearsal of what was to come before City and in the Classic. But first the poor performance of Bale, and then Hazard's injury, they definitely buried Zidane's plan.

Bale's credit in Madrid is low. It only saves him that the board sees him as a amortized player. The numbers leave him very naked. He hasn't scored in the League since September 1 (It's already 188 days!). There are only three goals this campaign, in which he has only been able to dispute the 33% of possible minutes (so far, its average was 47%). He has only been able to finish five games of the 14 he has started … Everything for a player who is the best paid with Ramos. Now, Bale runs a serious risk of becoming transparent.