Depending on which source you’re reading and who you choose to believe, the blockbuster deal that will take Gareth Bale from Real Madrid back to Tottenham Hotspur seven years after he left for Spain is either completely finished, or all but done.
Reports out of Spain say that Bale has finished his medical at the Real Madrid training center. The Daily Mail is reporting that everything is finished. But other sources say that while there are a few details to tidy up, it’s pretty much all systems go.
David Hytner, one of the most respected football writers at The Guardian, is in the latter camp. He calls the current situation “close” and says the talks are “progressing well,” with an eye to having everything finished up as soon as Thursday morning.
Details of the deal have been kept kind of hush hush as negotiations continued, but most have settled on the following: a one-year loan with no players heading the other way, and with Real Madrid subsidizing a sizable percentage of Bale’s wages over the duration of the loan. We don’t know how much, but there have been unconfirmed rumors that Spurs might pay only £250k/wk. Who knows, really? There’s likely to be at least some minor surprises when the deal gets announced.
This may not be the update that people wanted to read, but it’s about as positive as you can get without having a “deal done” confirmation. It seems everyone is on the same page — Bale wants to return, his agent Jonathan Barnett wants to make a deal, Madrid wants him gone, Jose Mourinho wants him in.
I’m still torn between head and heart on whether this transfer is a good idea, but it is without a doubt incredibly exciting. We will have to see whether Bale’s 31-year old body, which hasn’t played a ton of football over the past couple of seasons, still has what it takes to make a difference on this Tottenham Hotspur side. If his performances for Wales last week are any indication, a motivated and happy Bale playing football is still a force to be reckoned with. And with a bit of patience, I expect we’re going to see him wearing a white Tottenham shirt for the first time since 2013.
Who ever thought we’d see THAT again?
