The Spanish and German leagues have replaced the Premier League in football's hierarchy
The prospective transfer of Gareth Bale between Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid – now entering, by rough calculation, its 427th week – has been called a "soap opera". Elsewhere, the word used was "saga". It is neither of these things. Soap operas are dramatic and unpredictable. Saga is closer: it conveys the impression of an epic, attritional duration but again it implies twists and turns that the Bale sale has never had.
Despite the frenzied attempts of media outlets – Bale spotted at Málaga airport! Madrid builds a special presentation platform at the Bernabéu! – it has been hard for anyone to summon up much excitement. Spurs, by tradition now, bring through and promptly sell their best players; Real Madrid is often the destination for the world's most eye-catching talent. There is a frisson of interest in the fee – which could be a world record €100m (£86m) – but that figure is so whopping, so ludicrous in a time of austerity and genuine need that you would go insane if you thought too hard about it.
Throughout the grind, it has been hard to blame Bale himself. I met the 24-year-old "boyo wonder" in April, just as the speculation about a transfer to Spain was starting in earnest. Bale is modest and assiduously well-mannered, but he was clearly relishing the attention: only a couple of years before, he had not been guaranteed a place in the Spurs starting 11; now he was being praised by Zinedine Zidane and Luís Figo, and the world's most famous football club was coming on all hot and heavy.
Pundits – his former manager Harry Redknapp and the one-time Madrid galáctico Michael Owen among them – have advised Bale to wait. He clearly disagrees. His performances last season were essentially unimprovable: a serious injury or even a minor dip in form could see his value plummet. Evidently he has decided that now is the time. "I'd say that Spanish football is probably the best I've seen," he told me. "Every player would like to get as high as they can and try different things."
So, good for Bale, who is now set to earn upwards of £300,000 a week, but why should the rest of us care? Even the most devoted Spurs fans are probably so beleaguered now that they just want to get on with the season and their inevitable destiny of finishing fifth in the eventual Premier League standings.
Bale's transfer is significant though, and not just because of the potentially record-breaking figures involved. For most of the past 20 years, the Premier League could justifiably claim to be the foremost football competition in the world. The standard of play on the pitch could be unsophisticated, even primitive, but the fanaticism of the crowds and the astronomical wages on offer ensured an unrivalled flow, year after year, of marquee names.
The departure of Bale is further proof of how far English football has fallen. In previous summers we might have expected to see the arrival of the brilliant Brazilian Neymar (he signed instead for Barcelona) or the young playmaker Thiago Alcântara (he preferred Bayern Munich to Manchester United). Gonzalo Higuaín chose Napoli over Arsenal, while Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao turned down Chelsea for Paris Saint-Germain and AC Monaco respectively. Oligarchs are everywhere these days.
As the transfer window creaks shut, the greatest excitements in the Premier League have concerned the destinies of Luis Suárez and Wayne Rooney. Putting aside Suárez's behavioural issues – extreme even in the regressive world of professional football – he has made it abundantly clear that he would prefer to play anywhere in the world other than England. Rooney's powers, meanwhile, have appeared to be on the wane for a while now. To borrow Jorge Luis Borges's well-worn dismissal of the Falklands war, this summer for English football fans has felt like bald men scrapping over a comb.
Bale is going and with him goes our right to claim that the world's most gifted footballers play in the Premier League. To watch them now, you will need a paid TV subscription for Germany's Bundesliga (BT Sport) or Spain's La Liga (Sky Sports). But perhaps that doesn't bother you: this season's Premier League is sure to be tight, competitive and compelling anyway – just lacking a special something.
via Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663845/s/30a3fae4/sc/13/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Ccommentisfree0C20A130Csep0C0A10Cgareth0Ebale0Etransfer0Ereal0Emadrid/story01.htm
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