Gareth Bale sees no way out of Real Madrid after the collapse of his move to China, with the forward concluding that Florentino Pérez, the president, could not care less that manager Zinedine Zidane does not want to play him.
Bale had appeared to be closing on a move to Jiangsu Suning, yet three days before the Chinese Super League’s transfer window closes on Wednesday, Pérez decided against the move and Bale believes it is dead. This has left the player at odds with Pérez and is understood to have no interest in a move to another club in Europe, permanently or on loan.
The 30-year-old faces a bleak future at Real and believes he has little prospect of being selected, given Zidane’s recent pronouncements that he wants the Welshman to leave.
Bale was not included in the squad for the Audi Cup on Monday, with reports he had asked to be omitted because he is “not in the right mental state” to play despite having featured in the club’s last two pre-season friendlies as a substitute. Real play his former club Tottenham in Munich on Tuesday.
Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett has dismissed reports in the Spanish media over the weekend that the player’s family stopped the deal, telling Sky Sports News that Bale’s family were ready to leave Madrid.
On Sunday, Barnett told the French publication Le Journal du Dimanche: “It’s simple, Zidane doesn’t like Gareth.There’s no relationship between them. There never has been.”
Real released a statement on Monday which confirmed Bale had not trained outside with the main group, and worked inside instead with injured teammate Luka Jovic. They later announced their Germany-bound squad and Bale’s name was missing from the 24-player list for the tournament, which also features Bayern Munich and Fenerbahce.
Jiangsu have signed the Croatia striker Ivan Santini from Anderlecht, leaving them with five foreign players. Chinese Super League rules allow four overseas-born players in a squad and the Italian defender Gabriel Paletta is expected to depart soon.
Spurs have confirmed the England full back Danny Rose will be part of their Audi Cup squad, having been left out for their tour to Asia in order “to explore prospective opportunities with other clubs”.
Rose, who was linked with moves to Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle, has two years left on his contract and is valued at around £25m by Spurs but the 29-year-old defender could be reintegrated back into Maurico Pochettino’s squad as they prepare for their first match of the Premier League season against Aston Villa a week on Saturday.
