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Real Madrid won their third consecutive Champions League titles on Saturday, beating Liverpool 3-1 behind a brace from Gareth Bale. Bale came off the bench against Liverpool and his tally included one of the greatest goals you will ever see:
GARETH. BALE.
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) May 26, 2018
One of the greatest goals EVER. Watch it a billion times. #UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/2m4BzFrvQY
Astounding. But Bale made as many waves for his comments after the match as he did for his on-pitch heroics. In a post-match interview, Bale basically noted that he needs to play “week in, week out,” and hinted at his frustration at both his frustration at life in Madrid and the tantalizing possibility that he could make a return to the Premier League this summer.
Bales interview pic.twitter.com/wyE9zis62U
— Bateson87 (@bateson87) May 26, 2018
“Obviously I need to be playing week-in week-out and that hasn’t happened this season for one reason or another. I had a 5-6 week injury at the start of the season and I’ve been fit ever since.
“Now I need to sit down in the summer and discuss it with my agent and take it from there.”
Soooooooooooooooooo, I’ve already been quite clear about exactly why Tottenham Hotspur are not going to sign Gareth Bale in this summer’s transfer window. I’d like to think that the reasons are well-reasoned and accurate. In addition to the reasons put forth in that article, Bale’s off-the-bench heroics today probably raised his transfer fee by about £20-30m. There are lots of other clubs that are much richer than Spurs that would be significantly more likely to take him and pay him closer to what he’s worth than Tottenham. Spurs are going to have money to spend, but let’s be realistic about this.
My rational brain knows that this is the case and that it would be foolish to get my hopes up. That’s still not preventing my Tottenham Hotspur mega-fan hind brain from hysterically squeeing at this development. Because I’d TOTALLY have Gareth Frank Bale back at Tottenham Hotspur in time to open the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next fall. Despite the way he left the club, I suspect most Spurs fans would agree.
Look, I know we’re not going to re-sign Gareth Bale this summer. But what if we re-signed Gareth Bale this summer?