The case of Gareth Bale and Real Madrid is a strange one indeed.
On his day the Welshman is still a world class winger, and yet Zinedine Zidane, for reasons unknown, just doesn’t want to play him.
Worse still is that president, Florentino Perez, doesn’t appear to want to sell him either.
Hence we have the ridiculous situation where a player who could still command a nine-figure sale price is sat on the subs bench twiddling his thumbs.
Or, as was seen in the latter part of last season, playing a few rounds of golf whilst his team-mates were doing their upmost to win LaLiga.
Whilst it’s well known that Bale’s potential move to China had the plug pulled on it by Real during transfer deadline day last summer, news that Los Blancos also turned down a bid of €100m from a Premier League club may come as a surprise.
“I know in the last day of the transfer window last year there was an offer from the Premier League,” ex-president, Ramon Calderon, told talkSPORT and cited by the Daily Mirror.
“They offered €100m and Real Madrid turned down that offer […] I’m not allowed to say the name, though I do know the name of the club.
“I think at the end there was a disagreement as Madrid decided not to sell the player, because they thought he was a player who could be used and be in the starting line-up.”
With a month to go until this summer’s transfer window closes for business, it will be interesting to see if Real will finally allow Bale to leave.
If they insist he stays put, that potentially means he could spend up to another 12 months on the sidelines, which is clearly an unworkable situation for both parties.