IIRC we were well into negotiations to sign Vertonghen from Ajax without having a manager in place Levy was seen in Amsterdam meeting with him when we didn't have a manager in place
There’s one or two rumours saying Bale may call it quits after the Euros, try and take a cut of the remaining wage Madrid owe and then chill. Mystic RCL if it’s true, he called it yesterday
I mean, there's at least one occasion where I've blatantly made something up and seen it on the BBC Gossip page within 72 hours Whatever happened to Alan Dzagoev, anyway?
Joining Atletico Madrid. They love taking out of favour superstars and helping them prove Barca/Real wrong Suits his family too
I'm sure both Atletico + Bale could also come to some manageable financial compromise given how badly Madrid need the latter off the wage bill.
Would Bale retire with the possibility of the World Cup coming up? Trying to get out of his contract at a discount so he can join an MLS team or something? That I could buy.
That’s been my thinking - that he’ll try and get to the World Cup with Wales and then hang up his boots when his Real Madrid contract ends.
Another day, another dollop Vulture Watch Today I'll be looking at teams who fell short of Champions League qualification, especially in leagues where the margins are razor thin, and I definitely won't be infecting any of this list with personal bias... Bayer Leverkusen Jonathan Tah (25yo, Germany, centre back, contracted until 2023) Leon Bailey (23yo, Jamaica, right wing, contracted until 2023, has kissed and made up with the Jamaican FA) Nadiem Amiri (24yo, Germany, attacking midfield, contracted until 2024) Moussa Diaby (21yo, France, left winger, contracted until 2025) A German Team Dennis Zakaria (24yo, Switzerland, defensive midfielder, contracted until 2022) Matthias Ginter (27yo, Germany, centre back, contracted until 2022) Florian Neuhaus (24yo, Germany, centre midfield, contracted until 2024) Stuttgart Sasa Kalajdzic (23yo, Austria, striker, contracted until 2023) Real Sociedad Alexander Isak (21yo, Sweden, centre forward, contracted until 2024) Real Betis William Carvalho (29yo, Portugal, defensive midfield, contracted until 2023) Lyon Houssem Aouar (22yo, France, centre midfield, contracted until 2023, reportedly available for £25m this summer) Maxwell Cornet (24yo, Ivory Coast, left back, contracted until 2023) Jason Denayer (25yo, Belgium, centre back, contracted until 2022, counts as HG from his time at The Sheikh Mansour Team) Lucas Paqueta (23yo, Brazil, attacking midfield, contracted until 2025) Marseille Duje Caleta-Car (24yo, Croatia, centre back, contracted until 2023) Boubacar Kamara (21yo, France/Senegal, defensive midfielder, contracted until 2022) Pape Gueye (22yo, France, defensive midfielder, contracted until 2024) Napoli Piotr Zielinski (27yo, Poland, centre midfield, contracted until 2024) Stanislav Lobotka (26yo, Slovakia, defensive midfield, contracted until 2024) Elif Elmas (21yo, North Macedonia, centre midfield, contracted until 2025) Giovanni Di Lorenzo (27yo, Italy, right back, contracted until 2025) Roma Lorenzo Pellegrini (24yo, Italy, centre midfielder, contracted until 2022) Nicolo Zaniolo (21yo, Italy, attacking midfielder, contracted until 2024) Amadou Diawara (23yo, Guinea, defensive midfielder, contracted until 2024) Bryan Cristante (26yo, Italy, centre midfielder, contracted until 2024) Lazio Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (26yo, Serbia, centre midfield, contracted until 2024)
By which time he'll only be 33. Very early to quit - even though he is clearly not the athlete he was.
His time in Madrid seems to have killed his love of football. I believe I saw comments from him before the Leicester game talking about how the media there expect you to act, to buy into that Galactico mentality. That was never him as a person. I dare say there are two sides to every story but I don’t think he was ever happy in that environment. The injuries didn’t help either. The only gap in his club CV is a medal with Spurs so I suspect he aims to be back next season, try again for that goal, try to get Wales to a WC, play in it, then retire. He’ll retire as Wales top goalscorer, probably with over 100 caps, and with an honours list most could only dream of, even if he doesn’t win something with us. More power to him, I say. The only other thing I can see happening is him jetting off to Miami after his Real contract ends and playing for Beckham’s team out there. I imagine the lifestyle would appeal and he’d probably still make a decent packet.
Yeah I read about that too. This was something that some said as to the reason why Madrid chose not to sign Eriksen when it seemed destined to happen. Eriksen's a quiet and reserved bloke albeit with a dry sense of humour, he was never a big personality or a "galactico", he'd have stuck out there just as much as Bale did. I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist either to notice Bale was never really happy in Madrid too. He fulfilled his desire for trophies (and some!) so his professional desires were met but on a personal scale he was a bit of an outcast. I think he learnt Spanish but not to the degree he could socialise sufficiently enough and because of that he was never really integrated in the team, then the lack of a galactico persona just further put him on the fringes whilst the injuries certainly never helped. Judging by BTS videos of him here with the likes of Rodon, Davies, Doherty etc, I doubt he ever had that friendship/ team mate connection with those at Madrid, which for 6 years of your life in a foreign country, couldn't have been easy.
Our media didn't really get his sense of humour, so I expect the Spanish media wouldn't have got it at all. It plays out badly in print at times, too. He'd be joking about something and a transcript would look very negative or disrespectful.
Must admit I thought Gazza had another year left. Best of luck to both guys though. Enock Asante, Chay Cooper, Keenan Ferguson, George Marsh, Rodel Richards, Jack Roles, Aaron Skinner, Kazaiah Sterling and Shilow Tracey Have also left the club. I imagine Roles and Marsh especially will have suitors in the football league somewhere.
