On the Dangers of Overreaction: Why Selling Gareth Bale Would be a Terrible Mistake

Momentum seems to be growing in favor of Real Madrid selling the injury-prone Gareth Bale. Is it time to cash in and send Bale on to greener pastures? Alex McVey explains why he thinks this would be a huge mistake.

In The Real Champs’ round-table discussion about the merits of selling Gareth Bale, I discussed why I was surprised to find myself contemplating the sale of one of my favorite players on Madrid’s squad:

"A few weeks ago, I was honestly upset by the fact that this could even be a question. Gareth Bale is a generational talent, and when he’s on his game, there’s not a defense in the world capable of stopping him.Well, that was then, and this is now. After seeing what we saw in El Clasico, I’m starting to at least entertain the sale of Gareth Bale as a question up for debate. Limping off against Barcelona only fueled the “Sell Bale” narrative by providing the haters with a visible example of Bale’s seeming inability to stay fit for any extended period of time."

However, I ultimately argued in that post that the discussion about selling Gareth Bale might be more fueled by emotion than by logic, an understandable but deeply flawed overreaction to the heartbreaking loss against our eternal rivals.

Before El Clásico, I wrote here that Gareth Bale should not be risked for the Barca match. Despite his reassurances, the team’s doctors were indicating that he was at risk of reinjuring himself. It was a huge misstep on Zidane’s part to trust the insistent Bale rather than the team doctors that he was healthy.

Nevertheless, to react to this initial mistake by selling Bale would simply be piling one error on top of another. In fact, if Perez were to sell the Welshman, it might go down as the worst mistake in his presidential career.

If Perez were to sell the Welshman, it might go down as the worst mistake in his presidential career.

Bale is a generational talent. He’s the kind of footballer that any squad in the world would be dying to have in their ranks, even with his current injury problems. That’s why Real Madrid paid an astronomical price to acquire his signature. Selling him now would be giving up on a player who has a serious chance at winning the Balon D’or if he can manage to shake of his injury issues.

What makes Bale a unique footballing talent worthy of our patience?

First, his pace. This is the attribute for which Bale is perhaps best known. In fact, some metrics even identify Bale as the fastest soccer player in the world.

Bale is fast. Blisteringly fast. Leave Marc Bartra in the dust by pulling a road-runner-esque sprint out of bounds to chase down a ball and win the Copa Del Rey fast. God, I could watch this goal on repeat for forever:

Second, his dynamism. Not only is Bale fast, he’s explosive as well, allowing him to change pace and direction quickly to leave defenders in the dust. He has an extremely powerful shot from distance, but is also an accurate crosser of the ball. Defenders are constantly perplexed by whether Bale is planning on bursting past them to take a shot on goal, or turning to deliver a cross to his team-mates.

Third, is Bale’s ability to play as a free-roaming attacker in all parts of the final third. Bale’s ability to both pass and shoot accurately over long distances makes him capable of immense offensive flexibility when playing from the wings, but he also has an evolving skillset that makes him a potent attacker in the box. Specifically, before being sidelined with injury this season, Bale was becoming a huge threat in the air.

Fourth, Bale is a big game player, and knows how to win titles. His first season, he scored two game-winning goals in two finals to win Madrid trophies. That makes Bale definition of a clutch player.

So why in the world would anyone be interested in selling this player?

Many point to his inconsistency from season to season. While Bale looked like he was going to justify his enormous price tag after scoring in the two finals his first season, his second season was a bit of a let down.  He had a dip in form in 2014-2015, which coincided with Madrid going trophy-less.

In 2015-2016, though, Bale’s productivity cranked way up, becoming an even more lethal offensive weapon in Benitez’s, and then Zidane’s squad. This coincided with Benitez moving Bale to a roaming attacking midfielder in the center of the pitch, a role similar to the one he plays for the Welsh national team. When Zidane was appointed, Bale was moved back out to the right, but was still given more license to roam and attack in the box, a move that resulted in Bale becoming more lethal with headers.

It’s true, that recurring injury concerns have caused Bale’s 2016-17 has been a major disappointment. But he was doing great at the start of this season.

Had it not been for early contributions from Gareth Bale, Real Madrid would be nowhere close to the league title this season.

In fact, it’s safe to say that had it not been for early contributions from Gareth Bale, Real Madrid

would be nowhere close to the league title this season. Bale scored a brace against Leganes, scored one of our two goals against Espanyol, scored the winning goal against Villareal, saved a point against Eibar, scored two of our three vs Real Sociedad, and assisted against Atleti.

Another reason that one might want to sell Bale is that he fails to show up in our games against top teams.

In our group article, Tyler mentioned that Bale has been relatively quiet against our two big Spanish rivals: “In big matches, bar the finals in 2014, I can’t think of anything notable from him. He still hasn’t scored against Atleti or Barca in the league.”

I’m not sure this is a fair characterization of his performances. Bale was instrumental in Madrid’s dismantling of Atleti in the Madrid Derby in November, with his counter-attacking prowess playing a key role in Ronaldo’s hat-trick. It’s true that Bale was one of the worst performers in Madrid’s 4-0 humbling to Barcelona.  However, Bale was one of Madrid’s best players in Madrid’s victory in the Spring 2016 El Clásico in the Camp Nou. He had one goal wrongly disallowed, and still managed to assist Ronaldo for the game winner, despite Madrid being a man down. It is simply factually inaccurate to say that Bale has not played a role against Barca or Atletico.

But even if that weren’t true, it still wouldn’t be a reason to sell Bale. After all, Lionel Messi had failed to score in the previous six iterations of El Clásico, before single-handedly dismantling Madrid at the Bernabéu. The fact that Bale has had a few off games against our rivals doesn’t mean that he has always played poorly against them, nor that he will continue to do so.

Many point to Bale’s less than impressive goals and assists record this season as a reason why Bale had been slowing down. I rather see it as evidence that Zidane is using him in a different strategic set-up.  Zidane has been playing Bale as a midfielder in a 4-4-2 with Ronaldo and Benzema out front.

Notice how far away Bale is from CR7 and Benz, and how close he is to the fullback in the following passmaps:

Yes, Bale’s offensive stats (when healthy) are down, but his defensive stats (vs CR7, at least) are way up.

It’s obvious that Bale’s offensive production has been sacrificed for a Zidane system built around the CR7 and Benzema link-up. That doesn’t mean, however, that Bale has been useless. As Kiyan Sobhani from Managing Madrid writes:

"Gareth Bale makes Real Madrid better defensively. As mentioned above, Bale’s IQ without the ball is very high — he understands when to press and when to hedge off and close the passing lanes."

All-in-all, when healthy, Bale is simply too good of a footballer to abandon to the transfer market.

Real Madrid should not repeat past mistakes by selling Gareth Bale.

Real Madrid has a long history of abandoning football players before their time has come. Claude Makelele anyone?

Perhaps the more prescient analogy when discussing Bale’s potential sale is the mistake Florentino Perez made when selling Arjen Robben. Madrid sold Robben to Bayern Munich following a series of injury problems at Madrid. Although Robben has never managed to fully shake his injury issues, he did help them win a Champions League in 2013, scoring the winning goal in the final. Bale may end up having a really similar career arc as Robben. He may not be able to play consistently across the entirety of a season, but when he is healthy, he’s one of the world’s best, and can help whatever team he’s on win championships.

There have been plenty of great athletes who have struggled with injury, but gone on to achieve extraordinary things in their respective sports, including none other than the Brazilian legend Pele.

I think rather than sell Bale, we need to give him a summer to get completely healthy. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Bale played until the late stages of the Euro tournament in 2016. Giving him this summer to rest and recuperate might see a Bale return fresh and ready to tear it up in La Liga next season.

However, Bale should NOT expect to just waltz back into the starting lineup. If he is going to stay at Madrid, he is going to need to fight for his spot, and he faces stiff competition from the likes of Isco and Asensio. From a coaching perspective, that’s a welcome challenge. Zidane has already shown that he has the capability of managing the enormous egos on Madrid’s squad.

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