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- Gareth Bale is in Spain. As reports that the Welsh player took a flight to Marbella and will wait for the confirmation for his transfer there with his family. According to that report, Real Madrid want to confirm the deal in the next few hours. André Villas-Boas didn't expect Bale to be at White Hart Lane for Tottenham's Sunday match against Swansea.
- Jesé Rodríguez has impressed Carlo Ancelotti this preseason. The promising player scored two goals against Al-Saad and according to Marca, he will have minutes this season. Some reports stated that he would leave to Málaga as soon as the Bale deal was confirmed, though.
- Asier Illarramendi is back with the squad after missing the whole preseason stage. Very good news for Real Madrid after Alonso's injury.
- Gerardo 'Tata' Martino wants to get some love from the Barcelona fans, it seems. The Argentinian coach has forgotten the Neymar transfer fee and has said that "the numbers of Bale's transfer are disrespectful to the world in general". I don't recall any Real Madrid personality saying such things when they decided to pay 65M€+Eto'o for Ibrahimovic or 16.5M€ for Martín Cáceres. The 14M€ paid for Keirrison or the 40M€ paid for Alexis are highlights as well. We don't even want to remember Messi's turbulent deal with the Spanish treasury, but we might as well. The Argentinian player paid 25M€ to elude prosecution for not paying his taxes properly. Nicely done, Martino, you can now mind your own business.