Could Chelsea FC Sign Gareth Bale?
By Lee Fraser
Fast forward to 29th August 2015 and you Chelsea FC fans wake up to this headline!
Gareth Bale signs for Chelsea FC!
Impossible I hear you say, it will never happen, Financial Fair Play makes it unworkable, no-one is worth the money it would take to bring a “Galactico” in his prime to Chelsea FC.
So let’s hop back into the Delorean time machine and come back to the here and now to find out if this is actually feasible or if it is just typical rumour mill material.
A few facts first:
By Pablo Morquecho (Gareth Bale Uploaded by Dudek1337) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsGareth Frank Bale, born July 16th 1989 currently wears the #11 shirt for Real Madrid on a reported salary of £15,000,000 a year.
He signed for Real Madrid on 1st September 2013 on an initial contract to 30th June 2019.
The transfer fee was £82,720,000 and he currently has a market value of £70,400,000.
After some initial injury problems in his first season with Real Madrid he quickly established himself and was popular amongst the fans. Indeed he scored in all 3 of the Cup Finals that he has played in already!
His first was when he scored the winning goal in the Copa Del Rey Final against the “enemy” Barcelona
He followed that up with the 2nd goal in the 110th minute of the EUFA Champions League Final against the local “upstarts” Atletico Madrid.
Even as recently as December 2014 he scored the 2nd goal against San Lorenzo to help win the FIFA World Cup.
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Yet less than 1 month later, on the 10
th
January 2015 the fans turned on him for the first time. In the game against Espanyol he was booed by sections of the Real Madrid fans accusing him of being selfish in shooting rather than passing to their ultimate Galactico, Cristiano Ronaldo. His manager Carlo Ancelotti came out in the press to defend him but the damage had been done.
In Spain the main football newspapers tend to be heavily affiliated to one club. That is the case with the Marca newspaper, they are Real Madrid through and through and heavily influence the thinking of Real Madrid supporters. They don’t just report the news, they MAKE the news. Anyone who thinks Sky Sports are bad in the U.K. have never experienced the “Marca” effect when it comes to Real Madrid! The reason I mention this here is simple, they have started to question Gareth Bale’s commitment to the club (amongst other things) and that is the worst thing possible in the mind of a Real Madrid Ultra!
Under the heading “Bales commitment brought into question” the headline read:
“HE DOESN’T DEFEND BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT TO”
They reported one unnamed player as saying: “There’s only one Cristiano” and ended the article with “He (Bale) has plenty of class, but is not even half the character or half as hungry as the goal scoring machine from Madeira”. With just that one article the unnamed reporter totally destroyed any hope that Gareth Bale ever had of winning back the Madrid Ultras.
Then the very next day the Marca newspaper ran another story on Gareth Bale under the heading:
“WHY IS THE PLAYER NOT THE GREAT MAN REAL SIGNED?”
The reporter Enrique Ortego asked (and answered) 11, yes, 11 questions about him! Most of them were helpfully answered with the response that he doesn’t want to fit in, won’t fit in and is a loner!
Talk about character assassination!
Therefore we can safely assume that Gareth Bales time will soon be up at Real Madrid and he will be looking for pastures new, where he can feel loved and regain his confidence again.
The biggest problem that both he and Real Madrid face is his fee and wages.
Only the biggest and wealthiest leagues will be able to afford him. This discounts Serie A (Italy) and The Bundesliga (Germany) from the equation immediately.
La Liga (Spain) is also a no go, Barcelona being the only other team that could afford him, but rivalries and the upcoming transfer embargo prevent that.
Possibly Paris St. Germain could afford him from La Ligue 1 (France) but that is highly unlikely because of the current FFP ruling they are already fighting.
All of this just leaves the Premier League as Gareth Bales only likely destination. It would make a lot of sense from an emotional and personal point of view, he could buy his beloved PG Tips again and the spiders, of which he is so petrified, aren’t so big over here!
So Manchester Utd, Manchester City, or Chelsea Fc it is then
There was talk of a £117,000,000 bid being rejected by Real Madrid last summer, a case of poor timing as is so often the case from Old Trafford these days! Personally I don’t think that Manchester Utd either need Gareth Bale, or could afford him, with the rebuilding of virtually the whole of the team that they need to undertake.
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If as expected this season Manchester City don’t win any silverware they are likely to relieve Manuel Pelligrini of his managerial duties this summer. The bookies favourite as his replacement at the moment is none other than Real Madrid’s current manager Carlo Ancelotti, the very man who couldn’t get the best out of Gareth Bale!
That then has narrowed it down to a choice of 1 team……….. Chelsea FC.
Imagine a front 4 of Diego Costa, backed up by a trio of Eden Hazard on the left, Gareth Bale on the right, and Cesc Fabregas in the middle. That alone would be enough to terrify any defence in the Premier League, and also set the merchandise receipts soaring worldwide.
As much of a fantasy as it may seem, it could be possible AND stick within the FFP rules that Chelsea FC want to abide by these days:
- The upcoming new TV deal has been agreed and is worth an extra 70% compared to the previous one.
- Chelsea FC’s shirt sponsorship deal with Yokohama is worth £40,000,000 per year over 5 years, and is more than double the previous deal with Samsung (£18,000,000p.a)
Real Madrid paid approximately £15,000,000 over Gareth Bale’s market value when buying him so using the same formula he should be available for approximately £90,000,000 at the tops.
His position at Real Madrid is now untenable and the price could be right.
Sami Khedira has today reportedly signed a pre contract as a free agent with Schalke 04 so Real Madrid need a midfielder, I wonder if Oscar would appeal to them? Oscar has a current market value of £35,000,000.
Real Madrid are in desperate need of a replacement for Iker Casillas, I wonder if Petr Cech would appeal to them? Petr Cech has a market value of £10,000,000.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Yokohama deal + finally getting Torres off books gives Chelsea an extra £40m PER YEAR, or ~80% of what it'd take to land both Bale + Pogba
— Jake Cohen (@JakeFCohen) March 15, 2015
The huge transfer fee could be reduced by a swap deal for a player they require, and could potentially become another of Chelsea FC’s shrewd transfer deals that we seem to have developed the knack of lately.
So all things considered it may not be such a fantasy after all. The headline of 29th August 2015 may well read:
Gareth Bale signs for Chelsea FC!
And if it does please remember you heard it here first on The Pride Of London.
(All market values and transfer fees quoted are obtained from transfermarkt)