Gareth Bale Should Stay and Fight at Real Madrid Even If They Sign Eden Hazard

The Real Madrid revolving door hadn’t even stopped spinning before the British press were linking Rafael Benitez’s Santiago Bernabeu exit with Gareth Bale’s immediate future. In truth, they didn’t really need that excuse.

Almost from the moment the Welshman arrived in the Spanish capital as the world’s most expensive footballer back in 2013, there has been an apparent fascination with the desire to get him back “home” to the Premier League.

Perhaps it is seen as a slight on the division that the top British player in the game today wants to ply his trade elsewhere, or maybe it is simply down to the fact that we don’t often see players from the UK thriving in different climes, but it’s all just a bit… weird.

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Bale is one of the premier players at one of the premier clubs in the world game, so why would he want to change that?

The latest reports, via the Daily Mail, indicate that Bale wants to leave Madrid in order to link up with his Welsh hero and idol Ryan Giggs at Manchester United, but would you really want to throw away a Los Blancos career just for a few posters you had on your wall when you were a child?

The Daily Mirror go with the story that Chelsea want to bring Bale to their club in the summer, perhaps as a replacement for Eden Hazard should the Belgian go the other way.

Again, it’s all very understandable—of course they would want to target such a player to try and get them going again following this mess of a season—but with Champions League football looking unlikely in 2016/17 and the Blues nowhere near as prestigious a club as Real, why would Bale want to go there?

Of course, all of this changes should Bale suddenly find himself on the fringes of the team, but he’s scored seven goals in his last six games, and within that Mirror report from Darren Lewis we see just how much new Real coach Zinedine Zidane is relying on him.

Zidane said:

"

I understand that he was annoyed with the departure of Benitez because he was an important coach for him.

But he is going to have the same treatment from me as with Rafa. He is important for the squad and fundamental for the team.

What he has been doing recently is fantastic.

I am going to give him all my affection and support so that he plays well.

"

Hardly a “you can have him back if you want, Britain” is it?

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With Wales’ first major tournament in 58 years to come in the summer, this is obviously a huge year for Bale and one in which his happiness is going to have an impact on the way he plays.

That explains his annoyance at the Benitez dismissal, with the now former Real coach playing Bale centrally and somewhat shifting the focus of the team from Cristiano Ronaldo and onto him.

But the fact remains that even if Real back Zidane in the summer and give him the funds to sign Hazard—£100 million should do it, say the Daily Star—then, from a footballing standpoint, you’d probably put Ronaldo, who turns 31 next month, and Karim Benzema ahead of Bale in the list of players that the Spanish giants would be willing to sell to make room for him.

The thought of the French-football educated Hazard playing for a Zidane-led Real Madrid becomes more and more appealing the more you consider it, but Bale should also be in that picture and remain a key part of the team.

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As ever with Madrid, though, you sense that decisions are often made on a commercial rather than sporting basis. Ronaldo remains a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most marketable faces on the planet, and not just within football. His goals record proves that he’s still one of the very best around at that, too.

But Bale has never quite fallen into that trap that so many—Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain and more—did before him. He remains a crucial part of the way Real play, so the constant links with a return “home” probably baffle him.

He’s fine where he is, so just let him stay there.