Gareth Bale, maybe one of Europe’s hottest football stars right now, but having achieved just about everything he wants to achieve in European competition, what could be the problem with having a player just like him? Well with three years left on his £15.5 a year contract, Gareth Bale has just hit the big 3-0 and in football terms that makes him at the end of his useful playing career. Expertpicks.com investigates how Real Madrid can solve the problem of a player like Bale.
While thirty isn’t an old age by any means, in terms of football players, it is definitely getting up there. This means that the resell-ability of a player past this age dramatically drops, and that is the problem that is currently facing Real Madrid. Gareth Bale has achieved so much with the club. Six years ago he transferred from Tottenham for a cool €100m he has rapidly become one of the most successful British players ever to feature on the continent having picked up the Champions League title four times. He has tangled regularly with some of the biggest names in the sport such as Christiano Ronaldo and proven himself to be equally as good a player as any of them.
But Zinedine Zidane has described his attitude as ‘relaxed’ and would love to see money freed up to purchase some new players for the squad by selling Bale as soon as possible, and therein lies the problem, at Bale’s age his health and fitness are constantly being called in to question. Bale has started just seventy-nine of a possible 151 matches in La Liga last season meaning that he has either been unfit or unavailable or even just sat on the bench for large portions of the season. A situation that can’t make anyone happy. His fitness has been tested recently as he has picked up a number of small injuries which have had him out of action. This is not normally a barrier to transfers as clubs are often keen to take the risk, particularly when the upside of his play is so spectacular. But there is taking a risk, and then there is taking a risk when any transfer is likely to make him one of the highest earners in the sport currently, and that is a financial pill that most clubs can’t swallow.
That is a risk that Manchester United recently took when they signed over Alexis Sanchez, who has been mostly unspectacular scoring only five goals in forty-five appearances for the club. At a cost of £400,000 per week since his move from Arsenal, that is one move that is hitting hard at the club purses. Risks taken like that are one reason why clubs won’t be so keen to take the same risk with Gareth Bale. Though he is said to be happy to stay at the club, decisions will have to be made about his future in the sports, and this will largely be down to whether anyone is willing to take the chance on him.