If Gareth Bale moves to China, so it said in today’s paper, he’ll be ‘giving up the dream he’s had since he was 21 of being as good as Ronaldo and Messi’. Which is odd really because most people have those very same dreams. When they’re 6 years old, maybe 7. Even most Welsh people have just enough wherewithal to realise by the time they’re 17, 18, 19, that they’re probably not really going to be quite that good. “Keep your personal goals realistic” is a mantra of the wellness fraternity. Thus aspirations to be ‘as good a footballer as Messi’ or ‘as well hung as a porn star’ or even ‘to be as blond as Boris’ simply aren’t realistic.

And I love Gareth Bale. Who knows just how good he really could have been. If he’d have stayed at Tottenham. Where he grew up, thrived and turned into a Superstar. Which went kind of ‘supernova’ at Real and is now headed towards the distinctly ‘black hole’ of stardom. Otherwise known as China.

Why can’t he go to China and reach his dream there? Of being the best ever?? Well, that’s because there’s no credibility in being a ‘star’ in China. Same as in America. You’re playing against the equivalent of the Dulux Paints 3rd Division (north) every week and if you can’t run rings round them then you’re barely worth the hundreds of millions of pounds they’re paying you. However, you can see why Gareth’s agents would be keen on him signing a 3-year contract worth 150 mil, because any percentage of any part of that runs to ‘shitloads’. But first Real have to agree to sell the player for whom they paid 100 million Euros. And the Chinese want him for nothing.

Real manager, Zinedine Zidane, possibly the fifth best footballer ever to play the beautiful game (depending on where you rank Cruyff) and head-butter extraordinaire (the quality of the occasion rather than the rather sad butt itself), is not so hot at negotiation. Having stated that Bale has no future in Madrid. Who now have a choice of pissing 85 million quid away or continue paying a ridiculously high salary to a man who spends all his days on the golf course. Zidane’s statement is the negotiating equivalent of saying ‘we’ll never have a no-deal Brexit’.

Real will probably let him go. Because they’ve only spent about 230 million quid this transfer window on new players so far and want to buy Paul Pogba for around 150. How Pogba could be worth more than Hazard is a mystery to anyone outside the Bernabau, but the Spaniards are just stupid with and about money. The club goes into receivership every other year and in between they spend half a billion quid on dodgy people like Pogba. Who can be the most brilliant player one week and your worst nightmare the next.

Meanwhile Arsenal spend another 75 million on a new winger. Having already spent about 27 on someone else and bought another who’s not even playing for them this year. Not bad for the announced “40 million budget”. Maybe its Boris doing their accounts using the ‘wishful thinking’ Sage package.

I’m just happy that there’s no news about Eriksen. So far.

Happy Sunday

A xxxx