Three Clubs Interested in Signing Gareth Bale - But Newcastle Are the 'Great Favourite'
By Adam Aladay
Tottenham and Inter Miami are both said to be keen on signing Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale, but ( (confused) reports have claimed that it is Newcastle who are the 'great favourites' to land his signature as they are ready to pay Los Blancos between £44m-52m for his services.
Bale has managed just three goals and two assists from 18 appearances in all competitions this season. However, it is worth noting that he has started just 13 of these games.
The Welshman has been linked with a move away from the Bernabeu for some time, but it has proven challenging for Los Blancos to offload Bale due to his high wages and his own reluctance to leave.
FourFourTwo now report that Tottenham, Inter Miami and Newcastle United are the three clubs leading the way for Bale. However, it is supposedly soon-to-be cash-rich Newcastle who are the ultimate favourites as they are willing to make an offer that will satisfy both the player and Real.
Tottenham have asked about the forward, but they are only willing to offer Bale a lower salary, while their offer to Los Blancos isn't good enough. As for David Beckham's club, they are willing to match Bale's wages, but will not meet Real's €50-60m asking price.
That leaves Newcastle, who would be willing to offer the former Spurs man the same salary, an important role in the team and they are even willing to match the valuation of the player once the Saudi-backed takeover is complete.
It all sounds fantastic as far as Newcastle are concerned.
The only problem, however, is that FourFourTwo cite the Daily Mail as the source of the rumours, while the Daily Mail in turn cite FourFourTwo...
However, ultimately it seems that the majority of this 'latest update' actually seemingly stems from a separate Marca report from recent days, which the Daily Mail also covered. In this, it is noted that Newcastle's potential new owners have made the signing of Bale a 'priority', while they could also attempt to convince him to join by bringing in Mauricio Pochettino.
This was then re-reported by the Daily Mail, alluded to in FourFourTwo's report and then re-reported in the Mail - in a never-ending circle of rumours.
Peculiarly, FourFourTwo's piece claims that Real are looking for somewhere between €50-60m. However, in stark contrast, Marca say that Los Blancos wouldn't ask for a big transfer fee as simply not having to pay his wages would already save them a lot of money. As a result, in 'no case' will the fee exceed €20m.
The original Marca report does state that Newcastle's potential new owners have made the signing of Bale a priority, but a case of re-reporting from different outlets has resulted in numerous outlets all citing somewhere else - with different elements of the story changing along the way.