Gareth Bale’s agent claims relationship with Madrid front office is still good

Jonathan Barnett, Bale’s agent, recently addressed the rumors that MARCA floated earlier this week regarding a potential Bale transfer out of Real Madrid.

According to ESPN, Barnett has reassured that both Real and Bale are committed to each other and are willing to see out his contract with the club and perhaps further beyond that.

It seemed even earlier this week when these rumors surfaced again that they may not be true. MARCA does have a habit when it comes to transfer rumors that they aren’t always correct in reality.

Obviously, the summer transfer period is still a ways off to be completely certain of Bale’s future with the club. Though, I would still maintain that Bale will not be departing Madrid over the summer and he will be with the club next season.

Lorenzo Sanz speaks out on missing out on signing Aragones, Henry, and even Messi during tenure

Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz spoke with MARCA himself recently where he talked about a few key signings that he almost made for the club during his term. The first was almost appointing Atlético legend Luis Aragonés as manager.

“Luis Aragones could have trained Madrid twice, as when I arrived at the board in 1985 he was going to be the coach>

“He was a very good friend of mine, as we met almost every day in a cafeteria and we practically closed the agreement in my house.”

“He had one year left with Atletico Madrid and the president of that time, Vicente Calderon, was abroad, so Luis thought that when he returned to Spain he would convince him to release him to be able to come to Madrid, but in the end he did not let him.”

“The second time I remember that it was when he was training Espanyol and that was also a moment we could have signed him, but in the end it did not come to being.”

This would have been an interesting turn of events as Aragones has always been associated with Real’s rival. More interesting than this was the two planned transfers Sanz revealed interviews that both also fell through, one of which was Thierry Henry .

“Henry played at Monaco, we convinced him to sign with us and he signed the contract,” Sanz continued. When we had him on the plane to come to Madrid, the father arrived and said he could not leave and that he was afraid of the president of Monaco.”

“I said I would fix it, but in the end he insisted so much on his refusal that the operation came to an end.”

This of course would have been prior to Henry going to Arsenal and achieving the legendary club status he has now with Wenger’s Invincibles.

And while the idea of Henry in his prime playing with Real Madrid for what would have been most of his career, none may be more enticing than who Sanz revealed lastly.

“The current representative of Asensio was the one who brought Messi to Spain.”

“The parents told him that he had to be brought [to Spain], but he still did not know whether to take him to Madrid or Barcelona.”

“They told him to take him wherever, but in the end he went to Barcelona.”

As simple as Sanz explains it here, the thought of Messi choosing Real Madrid over Barcelona is one that most intriguing. There’s many discussions to be had of what Real would have looked like if Messi had spent his senior career with them instead of Barcelona.

While Real have had great success without him choosing Madrid, it is still fascinating to think about the possibility, as is the case with both Aragones and Henry as well.

Whether or not Sanz is accurately portraying what happened in these rumored discussions, it is still a good topic of conversation to have and how it would have affected other clubs like Arsenal and Barcelona had Henry and Messi come to Real instead. Likewise, Real may have looked much different in future transfers with these players in the squad.