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What's the story?
Having a dull day, are we?
Why don't we let the good folk at the Metro, via El Confidencial, spruce it up a bit? According to reports in the UK daily, the Madrid hierarchy are losing patience with Gareth Bale and are willing to offload their superstar if they can "recoup" * the €100 million (or £85.2 million) they shelled out to sign up the Welshman from Tottenham Hotspur.
And this they will do by offering him to Manchester United, whose manager, of course, famously admitted he was interested in signing Bale just a couple of months back before the UEFA Super Cup.
(*Real Madrid won't be recouping the amount spent, what with four years' worth of inflation to factor in, but football rumour mills aren't the best places to look for research on your economics thesis)
In case you didn't know
Bale missed a majority of last season due to a series of niggling injuries, making just 17 starts in La Liga, and unable to start for most of the knock-out stages of the Champions League.
He also missed the current international break due to a calf injury - sitting in the stands as Wales missed out on a play-off place thanks to a 1-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland must have been especially disappointing.
The heart of the matter
Florentino Perez may have made the purchase of Bale, but he isn't overly sensitive when it comes to selling off his players and he's stated before that "every player is transferable, and we'll see what happens next year"
It appears the hospital bill and the white handkerchiefs and boos that are often waved and howled at Gareth Bale seem to have made up his mind on what's going to happen to the Welshman.
Video
Bale doing what Bale does best, always a pleasure to watch
Could the move to England revive the Welshman's career
Author's Take
As smart as Florentino Perez's approach seems to be, why Manchester United would buy a player who has muscles that are more fragile than toothpicks, is anybody's guess.
If they do decide to gamble, it could honestly go either way - a fit Bale will make Manchester United invincible, the current one will simply raise expectations only to see injury cruelly take it away.
