Nope and are there any spuds whove taken their heads out of their arses for ling enough to realise he will go?
With Bale signing a long term contract with Spurs only six months ago, I can't see there being a desire to move on right now. AvB is clearly getting the best out of the player and Tottenham are likely to be offering Champions League football in 13/14. As, us English, don't tend to move abroad we would be talking United or City as an upgrade. No movement.
Does anyone actually know how long bales contract was for that he signed in the summer? If it was 4 years then thats one year almost gone, if he stays for another season then it would substantially weaken spurs position, as he would only have 2 years left, could be interesting to see how this one pans out.
Bale is currently a big fish swimming among minnows. The rest of the spud squad make him look a lot better than he actually is, just as they did with Moderate.
It was 4 years, I think. Not sure where you're getting "substantially weaken" from. The most likely scenario if Bale stays next season is that he will get a rise and extension, potentially with an agreement with Levy about leaving the following season.
Actually Id say we have more a problem at Arsenal of little fish in a big pond, but with the money being made available Iam hopeful that we can address that problem in the summer. Who knows even Bale could end up at the club he has supported his whole life.
How could you think that your position would not be weakened? With 2 years left, you would have to get him to extend, if he did not extend you would effectively be forced to sell him or risk losing him on the cheap a year later when he would have one year left. That's essentially what happened with us to nasri and RVP. Clubs would know he only had 2 years left and would be less likely to offer the big fees. Bale seems like a decent lad who would probably not want to try and screw spurs, but you never know with agents whispering in his ear.
To be honest after Sol campbell there is no chance of us letting go on a free...the first time he refuses a contract he'll have to be sold cos he won't be be allowed to drag out the last 3 years of his contract with fake promises...but like you said he doesn't come across like that.
I honestly think Bale is a decent bloke and probably quite loyal to his manager and team mates, but you can't deny the lad if he wants to go and play his football with somebody like Real or Barca. For footballers, it represents the pinnacle of their profession and any player with the talent to do so, like Bale, would regret it for the rest of his career if he turned down an opportunity like that.
I think Bale will be upfront...If he said he wanted to join Real or Barca and they offered enough then he'll go...I just meant he wouldn't drag out contract negotiations and would not strike like Modric and Berbatov. If we get top 4 I think he'll stay if not I think there'll be around 80% chance he'll go. Most of us are hopeful cos he didn't jump ship over the last 2 summers when all the press and pundits were predicting he would and he actually signed a new contract with us.
You said substantially weaken. If he was down to two years on his contract and had no intention signing a new one then of course we'd have to consider selling but that's very different. I'm pretty sure Bale has signed a new deal in each of the last 3(maybe 4) years so if it's a case of running his contract down to force his way out or taking the payrise and leaving more amicably I'm confident he'll do the latter and sign a new contract either this summer or in the next season. You're right, you never know for sure though so the assumption that Bale would reach two years left on his contract and not want to negotiate a new one is as speculative as anything anyone else has to say on the matter. Cazorla has the same length deal so if you miss out on the CL you'll be in a week position with him too, right? And since you brought the Nasri and Van Persie leaving with a year left for £25mill, how much more do you realistically think they were worth? Besides, had RVP stayed and you were comfortably in the top 4 you might consider losing him on a free as a better option compared to putting your CL revenue at risk. If Bale helped get us a few extra seasons of CL we might consider running down his contract a benefit to us, see we can all speculate about this kind of stuff
