Gareth Bale's Agent Blames Real Madrid Team-Mates for Star's Struggles

Jonathan Barnett, the agent of Real Madrid star Gareth Bale, has hit out at the Welshman’s Los Blancos teammates for not passing him the ball enough.     

Speaking with John Percy of the Telegraph, Barnett has attributed Bale’s poor form to these apparent undesirable circumstances and has insisted the players' reluctance to utilise the 25-year-old's talent is hampering his career at the Santiago Bernabeu:

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We’ve been vindicated by these statistics and it’s what we’ve been saying all along. It proves that people don’t know what they’re talking about when they criticise Gareth, they are not looking at it properly.

Real have to work with Gareth and pass the ball to him more. Give him more of the ball and let him show everybody what he’s good at. He’s going to be the best player at Real Madrid when his team-mates work with him and help him. Hopefully Real will come to terms with this.

I’m very upset that professional pundits don’t realise these facts. Instead of criticising, they should look at it more closely because it’s plain to see when you watch the games

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Percy’s piece notes that despite covering more metres per minute than Cristiano Ronaldo—who had 101 touches of the ball—during Real’s 2-1 loss to Juventus in the Champions League, Bale had only 32 touches.

As such, there is definitely some credence to Barnett’s claims. Indeed, as noted by Dermot Corrigan of ESPN ahead of Los Blancos’ disappointing 2-2 draw with Valencia on Saturday, a lot of Madridistas are getting on the Welshman’s back:

As noted by Percy, the former Tottenham Hotspur man’s difficult run has prompted links to a move back to the Premier League, with Manchester United and Chelsea apparently keen.

But Barnett has insisted that there is “no way he is going anywhere” and that although some may have been “broken” by the experience, Bale is “determined” to put things right with Real.