Gareth Bale probably didn’t envisage his return from injury panning out quite like this.
The hero of the Copa final against Barcelona in 2014 with a run that defied at least one of Newton’s laws of motion and the scorer of the extra-time goal that broke Atletico’s back in the Champions League showpiece a few weeks later can now only dream of playing a decisive role against such opposition.
In total, Bale has featured for just 81 minutes of Real Madrid’s five Champions League knock-out games this season and didn’t even get off the bench at the Allianz Arena last Wednesday.
The breaking point, reportedly, came at half-time when Juventus were handing Zinedine Zidane’s side a lesson in intensity at the Bernabeu. Cristiano Ronaldo apparently channelled Harry Redknapp — a familiar figure from Bale’s past — in inviting the Welshman to run around a bit more while Zidane was said to be far from pleased with the winger’s energy and attitude.
Apathy breeds apathy and Bale might have been making a point. But the end result for the Cardiff express is a first-class ticket back to the Premier League this summer, if anyone is willing to meet the fee for an injury-prone player who will be 29 this summer. Under the circumstances, Florentino Perez will happily take a hit on the man he made the game’s most expensive in history just five years ago.
It will be a shame for Bale, whose injury history has prevented his name being fully enshrined into the pantheon of greats at the Bernabeu. A great player he clearly is. A great fit for Madrid…? The jury remains locked in discussion and the 12 angry men doing the deliberating are all wearing white shirts.
In any case, the fact remains that Bale now finds himself a standard-bearer for the disenchanted and disenfranchised at the Bernabeu: the star of Real Madrid B. The summer influx of young Spanish talent has barely kicked a ball in anger in 2018 and the last time the Real boss placed the ranch in their hands they were bulldozed off the property by this weekend’s opposition, Leganes.
The modest side from southern Madrid have already met their goals for the season: they remain a Primera club ahead of 2018-19 and reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey for the first time in their history at the expense of the European champions.
Lucas Vazquez unwittingly summed up that result more succinctly than modern football is accustomed to but the bald truth is that Zidane horribly underestimated the opposition and blithely assumed that a few tens of millions’ worth of young talent would be enough to see off a limited but experienced Lega.
He will not make the same mistake again and Bale, whether he likes it or not, will provide the cucumber filling in a Munich sandwich on Saturday. He was not used against Bayern and despite Isco’s injury has no guarantee of featuring next week for the return leg, however wretched Karim Benzema’s form may be.
Zidane is likely to play a much-weakened XI on Saturday and despite toeing the party line about finishing as high up the La Liga table as possible, the Frenchman was merely paying lip service to the day-to-day obligations of a competition that ceased to matter some time ago. The priority is beating Bayern and he will tailor his side accordingly. Given that he may be missing both Isco and Dani Carvajal for the visit of the Bundesliga champions, the Real boss said that he will not be taking any risks against Lega.
That, for Bale, is the final insult to add to his lengthy list of injuries. Zidane has been increasingly tetchy in news conferences of late and let slip an F-bomb during his appearance ahead of Saturday’s game. “The important thing is the message — not just for Gareth and Karim — but for all of them. We have a month left, and we must all be at our f—ing best.”
For Bale, it may be too late to turn the tide of opinion within the Bernabeu in his favour. Leganes vs Real Madrid was billed, inevitably, as David vs. Goliath before the Copa doubleheader. Now it is more a case of David vs. his older brother, with David Jr. having already chinned the latter once this season. Bale may view the game similarly as a smack in the chops, much as he did when deployed as a lone striker to no effect at Espanyol in February.
That he has been linked with a move to Bayern between the ongoing European tie is hardly a coincidence. Jonathan Barnett may not enjoy the notoriety of Mino Raiola or Jorge Mendes but he knows when a button is there to be pushed. Bale, for his part, can only keep plugging away this season and that starts on Saturday against a side who will not care a jot for the individual sensibilities of the opposition.
The sad reality is that the Welshman is probably feeling exactly the same way about his Real Madrid career.
Rob Train covers Real Madrid and the Spanish national team for ESPN FC. Twitter: @Cafc13Rob.
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