Gareth Bale linked to team with lots of left-sided players and a manager in trouble

Surprise, Gareth Bale continues to be linked to the world's biggest and richest teams. He'll probably be linked to Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona repeatedly until he is sold or Tottenham Hotspur is sold to an oil baron. Today's rumor comes from MARCA, by way of the Daily Mail, and links Bale to a £33 million move to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Here's why this rumor is dumb. Quoting the Mail:

Marca claim it is for 40million euros and that manager Jose Mourinho will not rest until his top transfer target has been secured.

Is Madrid's interest in Bale possible? Sure. Is £33m a price that would make sense for both sides? Maybe. But there are two problems I have with this sentence.

1. Manager Jose Mourinho will not rest until - Yeah, let's stop right there before we go any farther. How do we know that Jose Mourinho is going to be the Real Madrid manager after the winter break? They're SIXTEEN FRICKING POINTS behind Barcelona and SEVEN behind Atleti. Surely the board is considering a change? And even if they're not considering a change, they're certainly considering not giving him €40 million to a manager who was rumored to be on his way out last year when he got to a Champions League semifinal and won the league.

2. His top transfer target - Bale is the top transfer target for a team with Marcelo, Fabio Coentrao and Angel di Maria? When their right back can also play left back and they can hardly find time to play Jose Maria Callejon? There's just absolutely no way a left winger/wingback is Real Madrid's top target right now.

Bale isn't leaving this window unless Levy gets considerably more than he did for Luka Modric, and Real Madrid won't be the team paying that price for him.

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