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In all seriousness, and I've said this before, as fun as it was for us, the 'Wales. Golf. Madrid' thing was a spectacularly insulting thing to the fans who pay good money for his wages. I also think he should have left Madrid many years sooner and that was all a bit unsavoury.
Quite clearly though, this is down to A Quiet Monkfish's spurned advances towards him
He tried to leave agreed terms with another club, and was blocked by Madrid club President. what more could he have done.Originally Posted by JamesWales
The Government of Spain pay the wages at Real Madrid dont they?
It was a playful dig directed at the Merengue media machine rather than a dig at the fans. Marca and the likes were printing stories suggesting he preferred to be playing golf than play for Madrid. It was an incessant media storm. Context is key.
When Bale first arrived at RM he was known by the locals as the 'Cardiff Express'. They loved him. He ended up two seasons virtually on the bench, and - as you say - ended up effectively taking the p*ss. He'd have done the same here. He's a Welsh football legend of course, but the greatest ? No, there was one greater than him. He's a mega star, able to command huge sponsorship deals and wages, but I doubt he'd have broken into a trot for City. With football it's normally 'what can this player bring to the team'. With Bale it's more 'what can this club do for me'. City dodged a very expensive bullet.
Just to point out that it was Pedrag Mijatovic who coined the phrase 'Wales. Golf. Madrid' in order to insult or put Bale down on Spanish radio. I think he was director of football at RM at the time? Anyway, you can't blame Wales fans or Bale for wanting to own that narrative and turn it into a positive, because at the end of the day it was clearly untrue. Count the trophies he won there.
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