Bale potential suspension investigation postponed

According to ESPN, the investigation into a potential for Gareth Bale due to his goal celebration gesture towards the Wanda Metropolitano crowd during El Derbi has been postponed. For those that don’t know exactly what was done, Bale did a vulgar arm thrust towards the booing Atlético crowd after subbing on and scoring the third goal of the match.

While the referee did not card Bale nor did it appear in the ref’s post-match notes, a discussion has been launched by LaLiga since with the possibility of Bale being suspended for his actions. ESPN reports that this decision should be made within a week’s time, but that may mean Bale misses and/or both El Clasicos next week.

We’ll have to see what the LaLiga officials come to as a conclusion around this time next week. Hopefully, they don’t find a need to punish Bale for a gesture he wasn’t even reprimanded for during the match.

James comments on potentially returning to Real Madrid

James Rodriguez was interviewed by El Larguero after Bayern’s Champions League draw on Tuesday with Liverpool. He was asked about his future at Bayern and whether he would consider rejoining Real Madrid.

“I have to think hard about what I’m doing. In Madrid, I have everything—my house, people who love me.”

“We will have to see what happens, but at the moment I have a contract with Bayern Munich. I just want to finish the season and we’ll see what happens.”

“I keep in touch with some Real Madrid players.”

These are quite interesting comments from James, this is really the first time he has outright spoken about the possibility of returning instead of dancing around them a bit. Obviously, he would be welcomed back to this squad and would immediately be in the rotation to start and substitute.

While James returning would likely mean less time for players like Ceballos and Valverde, more depth in midfield is always a good thing to have considering Kovacic may stay at Chelsea himself.

James still has a wealth of talent and skill, most didn’t want to see him leave on loan in the first place. It’s really unknown at this point whether Bayern will activate his purchase clause or not, I would lean more towards they will do just that. You do never truly know until that happens though.

The curious case of Lucas Silva

Real Madrid loanee Lucas Silva has expressed his desire to return to the Bernabéu as a mainstay in an interview with MARCA.

“When I arrived I trained well, started to play and even started in the Champions League—played well and we won.”

”I am motivated and want to play at a high level and win titles. Without a doubt, I think I have the option of returning to Madrid again.”

“I left Europe thinking about resuming my career and having more consistency and rhythm in matches. I didn’t achieve it in my first season, but last year was very good because I played regularly and I was winning titles.”

“It was a very good year. The most important thing is that I’m back playing at a high level.”

Silva has had quite a disappointing journey since bouncing around on loan from Real Madrid. He was originally hailed by the club and then-manager Carlo Ancelotti as the next great talent in Madrid.

Since then, Silva has been on loan at Marseille, where he had a rather disappointing spell there. He was then supposed to be loaned out to Sporting CP, but fell through when he had a heart condition that threatened his career.

There were many rumors that he would retire because of this, but he was able to fortunately continue training and playing. Now, he has been on loan at his original club Cruzeiro since 2017 where at least he believes he’s been successful enough to warrant a return to the Bernabéu.

Silva is quite similar to Casemiro, who Silva has praised his relationship with, in that both Brazilians arrived at Real at 22 and were immediately loaned out. Both are the same age, but Casemiro has since returned and is a mainstay midfielder for the club now.

This, unfortunately, may never be the case with Lucas Silva. There’s no signs that he would return to Real Madrid and be a factor for the club. He still is technically is in his prime, so there’s always a chance, but it would certainly be a long-shot to say that Lucas Silva will ever reach the potential that the club envisioned when he first arrived from Brazil.