When Gareth Bale moved from Real Madrid to Tottenham on loan, there was some balancing of feelings in the media closest to the Spanish club.
On one hand, the Welshman doing well would make it less likely he’d return, and therefore Los Blancos wouldn’t have to pay the final year of his wages, with some even holding out hope of a transfer fee.
On the other hand, Bale failing at Spurs would provide a great we-told-you-so opportunity, and give the Spanish media a feeling of justification over how they’ve reported on the player in recent years.
El Confidencial go with the latter slant and have a headline reading: ‘Zidane was right: Mourinho accuses Bale of lying about his physical condition on Instagram’
They go as far as to say the Madrid owned attacker looks ‘like a former footballer’, who is being held back by fitness problems and ‘melancholy’.
To make it clear the stance they’re going for, El Confidencial say: ‘Gareth Bale confirms this season, in North London, that he is one of the smartest footballers in history : he charges 16 million euros a year to train and play golf. (Nine of them come out of the annual budget of Real Madrid). It is somewhat boring to continue glossing over the privileged indolence of the Welsh national hero.’
Zinedine Zidane is presented as being right for feeling Bale is ‘irretrievable’ as a top level footballer, and there’s not much hope for the player’s situation to improve quickly at Tottenham.
