During his time at Tottenham Hotspur Gareth Bale established himself as a club legend.
At his peak in north London, he scored 26 goals and provided 15 assists during the 2012/13 season, winning the PFA Player of the Year award in the process.
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That led to interest from Real Madrid and, at the end of the 2013 summer transfer window, Los Merengues broke the world transfer record to take him to the Santiago Bernabeu. Since then, he has scored over 100 goals and won the Champions League four times.
However, tension between the Wales international and Zinedine Zidane, Madrid’s manager, have increased, and it looked as though he could be out of the door last summer. He survived in Spain though, just as he did in January, despite Tottenham trying to take him back to the Premier League.
Now, Marca is reporting that Los Blancos could be willing to let him go on a free transfer.
Here, we take a look at why a move back to Tottenham would be a bad decision from Daniel Levy.
Wages
Although they have been in the Champions League in each of the last four seasons, Tottenham still do not part with huge sums in terms of wages compared to other clubs. They had just the seventh-biggest wage bill in the Premier League last term, for example – even Everton pay their players more.
As per capology.com, Bale currently earns €537,346 a week. That works out at around £495,000 – a quite staggering amount of money. For that sum, Spurs could pay the wages of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dele Alli, and still have £45,000 in change. It would take some huge restructuring to fit that level of expenditure into their budget.
Injuries
The 30-year-old had his injury problems during his time at Tottenham anyway, but those issues have only multiplied since he transferred to Spain. All in all, he has missed at least 85 games instead spending time in the physio room, and this season alone he has had ankle, thigh and calf problems.
Given that Jose Mourinho has had to deal with lengthy injuries to Kane and Son already this campaign, and with Steven Bergwijn now out injured, it is unlikely he will want another injury-prone player at the club. And considering he is now entering his thirties, it is unlikely to be a trend that will subside.
New future
As mentioned, Bale has had plenty of problems in Spain recently. There have been rumours that he refuses to integrate – he still doesn’t speak Spanish after seven years – and, after Zidane had said they wanted him to depart last year, he said he would be happy to play golf and pick up the pay-checks (Radioestadio via Sport).
Taking Bale back would surely be a nostalgic signing, and one that would not fit in with where the club wants to go right now. Older players such as Danny Rose and Christian Eriksen have been moved on, and younger players such as 22-year-old Bergwijn, 21-year-old Gedson Fernandes and 23-year-old Lo Celso were brought in.
Clearly, there is a slight push towards youth and, anyway, it is unlikely that Mourinho would be happy to deal with a potentially disruptive player – just look at his dealings with Paul Pogba.
This is just another reason why Spurs should forget Bale, even if he would be available on a bargain free transfer.