Could Gareth Bale be given a second chance?
This whole Gareth Bale saga has me siding with manager Zinedine Zidane, who it has to be said has not tried to hide his dislike of the Welsh international.
Zidane has made it clear on several occasions that the team would be better off if Bale was not there.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old winger has not done himself any favour either by not fully embracing the team and adapting to life in Spain.
There was a chance that he was going to be sold to a club in the Chinese Super League, but that deal fell apart when club president Florentino Perez realized that Real Madrid was not going to receive a transfer fee.
As things stand going into next season Real Madrid has a £650,000 per week player sitting on the bench because he and the manager don’t see eye to eye.
Former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp knows Bale well from his playing days at Spurs and thinks he should be given another chance to prove himself.
While being interviewed BBC Radio Wales Redknapp expressed his surprise at how a club like Real Madrid could just cast aside one of the world’s top footballing talents.
A transcript of the conversation was carried by football website Goal.com and is as follows.
“It’s not been good the way it came out.
“It came out suddenly he (Bale) wasn’t wanted around the place and he’s not the type of lad that you would treat like that because he’s not a problem.
“He’s not a lad who’s in the dressing room, causing you problems or upsetting the rest of the spirit in the team, he’s not one of them lads, so I don’t know why you would treat Gareth like that. It was a bit strange.”
Bale has struggled with injuries since joining Real Madrid that has limited him to playing just 79 games in four seasons at the club.
This has led to many fans targeting Bale as a scapegoat for some of Real Madrid’s poor performances of late.
Fans are now questioning his commitment to the team and saying he is not giving 100% when he plays.
Redknapp feels the tables could be turned and Bale given a fresh start, should Real Madrid get off to a poor start one the La Liga season kicks off.
He added: “Gareth’s a great player and he’s a great lad as well, never been a minute’s problem.
“I managed him for four years and he’s absolutely low maintenance, not a problem to anybody, gets on with his football, so I’m surprised really the way it’s evolved at Real Madrid, surprised at how Zidane came out and suddenly said he’s not wanted here.
“It wasn’t the ideal way to deal with it and Gareth’s not going to be pushed into or rushed into going somewhere he doesn’t want to go.
“He’s at a great club and you know what will happen, probably in a month or two they’ll have a few bad results Real Madrid and they turn and say ‘Come on Gareth we didn’t mean it really and you’re back in the team’.”
A similar thing happened to David Beckham during his time at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Beckham was frozen out of the team by then manager Fabio Capello but worked his way back into the side before leaving to play in the U.S.A for LA Galaxy.
Redknapp may have a point in that Perez could put pressure on him to play Bale should Los Blanco’s start the season poorly.
I, on the other hand, think there is now too much bad blood between the Welshman and Zidane that it is too late to turn things around.
