Gareth Bale ensures his future is not at Real Madrid

Real Madrid made Gareth Bale their most expensive signing when they brought him to the club, but with all the drama and uncertainty that surrounds the Welshman, it’s easy for us to forget that and simply hope he has a smooth exit.

As someone who considers himself a massive fan and admirer of Gareth Bale, I have to admit that there were many times where I did whatever I could to find a way to defend his actions and his words that were taken negatively by the fans and/or the club.

I would personally not work on an article about him right away until I could find a different angle to take it.

Because of habit, I had a measured initial reaction when I saw Bale and his Wales teammates celebrating with the flag that said “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order”.

However, this time it’s difficult to see a more upbeat angle.

The Spanish media outlets loved the saying by Pedja Mijatovic where he said that it seems as though Bale doesn’t have his priorities straight. What’s a little peculiar about this is that Mijatovic has also said that he doesn’t know the player personally, which right away shows that everything said after that is simply assumption. As expected, that made no difference to the Spanish media and the fans as they stuck with the part of the saying that they loved most.

Gareth Bale hasn’t trained with the team since the last international break due to injury but was able to train and play two games with Wales during this break, which brings up a few questions about his relationship with the club and particularly Zinedine Zidane even though things seemed to be improving when the season began.

During the games, the Welsh fans began a new chant which takes what Mijatovic has said as they aim to bring in some banter to the game. Why shouldn’t they? Wales is first on that list and that’s what they’re rightfully happy about as they sing at the top of their lungs “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order!” When asked about it, Bale has admitted that he finds the chant “a bit of fun” and that’e exactly what it was. The debate ended there as no one will blame the player for a chant the fans are coming up with from a saying that originated with Mijatovic.

Then the most recent game came around as Wales qualified for the Euro 2020 and the flag came out as Bale just ensured everyone working in the Spanish media was about to have a long night. As the team celebrated great success, the eyes were all on the flag which had the chant written onto it. Just like that, Bale ensured that his future won’t be at the club and I would personally be surprised if the Welshman plays again and/or stays beyond the January transfer window.

To a certain extent, I guess we can see where Bale is coming from. He has spent years at the club being disrespected and questioned regardless of what he does and it seems as though it has officially reached boiling point. The way I see it, the Welshman has already decided that he’s leaving in January (could have also been agreed with the club) and therefore he wants to have some “fun” before he leaves. Unfortunately for him though, this move has alienated many of his biggest supporters and more demands of his departure will be expected.

I personally highly doubt that Bale meant any disrespect towards the club or any of his supporters as he took a direct quote rather than adding anything to it. However, that same quote has the name of the club he plays for and that in itself will be taken into consideration. His plan was clearly to hit back at the media but in doing so, he also showed some disrespect to the club. He has been quiet about everything for so long and it looks like he finally felt that it was time to speak up, which is exactly what he did. The move, in my opinion, has backfired as he ended up losing many of his supporters while the media simply used it all to their advantage. In this case, he’s solely to blame and has to shoulder any incoming consequences from this.

Gareth Bale’s contribution to the club will not be forgotten but it will surely be overshadowed by the antics of the past few months which include this flag incident as well as the drama that surrounded him over the summer transfer window regarding potential transfers and his agent’s comments.

If we focus on his contributions alone, he deserves on leave as a legend of the club but if we take everything together then he might be remembered as someone who left the club through the back door and as unfortunate as that is, he will have to shoulder some of the blame. All we can do now is wait and see how things progress from here.