Why Gareth Bale is not for sale - even if Spurs are offered a record £82m

THE BATTLE lines are drawn: Tottenham insist Gareth Bale is not for sale at any price. How about a world-record £82million, Real Madrid have enquired? The player himself has made it clear he is keen on a move. So what will Daniel Levy do now? 

There are compelling reasons why I believe he should – and ultimately will – stick to his guns and keep Bale at White Hart Lane for one more season.

The Tottenham squad flew home from the Barclays Premier League tournament in Hong Kong yesterday.

Bale was at no point risked on the quagmire pitches of the Far East but could be fit for the trip to Monaco at the weekend.

 
Gareth Bale could yet become the first £100m player ...Real Madrid are likely to be back with more money in 12 months

He has been told to report back to training on Wednesday, giving both sides 48 hours to think about the best way forward.

Emphatically, Bale is not a player given to sulks, tantrums or strikes, making him simply a very expensive pawn in this whole process.

Real Madrid can only do what Real Madrid do – throw more and more money at the issue.

Meanwhile, Bale remains under contract until 2016 and there is no indication that Spurs owner Joe Lewis is looking for a fast buck.

Instead, he continues to trust the judgment of his chairman.

So all the power rests with Daniel Levy, a man currently weighing up his options.

He is being offered a lot of money – much more than anybody envisaged at the start of the summer when manager Andre Villas-Boas was first trumpeting the “not for sale” stance.

It could even be more – Madrid are not an outfit that would baulk at making somebody the first £100m player, for instance.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy insists he will not sell Gareth Bale

That is a huge amount of money to reinvest across the squad.

But for Tottenham and Levy, timing is everything.

Sat on top of an obvious pile of cash is not a strong place from which to conduct negotiations in the transfer market.

That said, even Levy could live with paying a few million over the odds for somebody if he was the right player.

Largely, though, the “right players” want to be in the Champions League – something that, as of now, Tottenham cannot offer them for any amount of money.

So Spurs can only attract those young and patient enough for the project to come of age, or desperate enough to take a punt on one more shot at glory.

Unless they simply come for the money.

At the same time, Tottenham’s chances of finishing in the top four will take a hammer-blow if the other players sold on the idea that the club are too ambitious to flog off their star players watch Bale walk out the door.

There is a potent squad at White Hart Lane who now need to go somewhere.

Following two Champions League near-misses, that is the primary focus.

Speaking in Hong Kong after Spurs’ 6-0 demolition of South China, captain Michael Dawson said: “We missed out on the Champions League last season, so our aim at the start of this campaign is to make sure we are in it next year. Everyone wants to be in the top four and back in the Champions League.”

Striker Jermain Defoe added: “Sometimes in life when you have something to prove it is a good thing because it makes you more hungry and a little bit harder. If we can finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League this time it would be fantastic.”

Not only fantastic, but lucrative.

If losing Bale this year means missing out on the £35m windfall of a top-four finish, suddenly the net price tag becomes a more “ordinary” £47m.

Not quite the offer that cannot be refused.

Of course, keeping Bale is no guarantee of Champions League football but the odds are undoubtedly much better.

Spurs want Soldado (left) to join Bale (right) in their attack

Either way, there is little risk. Provided the Wales international has a half-decent season this time around, Real Madrid showed with Luka Modric they are likely to be back with even more money 12 months down the line.

Tottenham is a club that, after years of getting their affairs in order – new training ground, director of football model in place, plans developed for a new stadium – is looking to become one of the country’s elite teams.

If you are not going to make progress, you might as well make money – but if that is the motivation, why spend £18m on Paulinho earlier this summer and make a bid of more than £25m for Roberto Soldado, and then look to add more?

So the bottom line – the one that interests a money-man like Levy – is that selling your dream just does not add up. Not even when you can sell it for £82m.

 [express]