Speaking recently on The Athletic’s Headline podcast, David Ornstein discussed Tottenham Hotspur’s reported interest in bringing Gareth Bale back to the club.
After leaving Spurs for Real Madrid in 2013, in a deal that was then a world record transfer of £85.3 million, Bale has gone on to make 251 appearances for Los Blancos, scoring 105 goals and providing 68 assists along the way.
However, The Telegraph recently reported that Zinedine Zidane and Bale have fallen out and are now ‘barely on speaking terms’.
The Welshman featured just 16 times in LaLiga last season and the 31-year-old was also allowed to stay at home rather than travel with the Madrid squad for their Champions League round of 16 tie with Manchester City last term.
In order to facilitate a move away from the Bernabeu, The Telegraph report states that Madrid are willing to pay 50% of Bale’s £600,000-a-week wages, should he find a move to a new club.
It would seem that this is a deal that has interested Tottenham, as reports have surfaced that claim the club are in talks to re-sign their former player.
And, Ornstein believes that Spurs fans can get “quite excited” about this deal, as it looks like the move “could well happen”.
Speaking on The Athletic’s Headline podcast, he said: “Tottenham are now working on a deal to re-sign Gareth Bale. It’s extraordinary just saying it, especially when there’s so much big finance involved in it.
“[It] sounds like it would be a loan. We don’t know what sort of proportion of the salary Tottenham would take on and Real Madrid would keep paying to get him off the books. There are all sorts of rumours flying around about players going in the opposite direction.
“Tottenham fans, I think, can get quite excited, because it looks like that is a deal that could well happen.”
Do you think Bale will become a Spurs player before the end of the transfer window?
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TIF Thoughts…
Putting aside the fact that Gareth Bale returning to Spurs would be a rather stunning move from a logistical point of view, the addition of a forward is something that Spurs may have been crying out for since they allowed Fernando Llorente to leave last summer.
This is because Llorente’s departure left Spurs with only Harry Kane as an out-and-out striker in their senior squad. With a congested fixture list over the coming weeks, the addition of another player who is capable of playing upfront would be highly beneficial to the side.
And, with Ornstein saying that the deal looks quite likely to happen, as a Spurs fan, it must be great to hear that the club could finally be addressing their lack of depth upfront, as well as being an extremely exciting thought that Bale could be on his way back to the club where he made his name.