Welsh forward Gareth Bale has been in Madrid for nearly two years now, but his inability to pick up the Spanish language is leaving him isolated in the Real Madrid dressing room, where trainer Carlo Ancelotti conducts all his business in Spanish.
Meanwhile the 25-year-old continues to take lessons, but does not make much progress as a recent radio interview proved, with his having to be asked questions in English and then having his answers translated in Spanish for the listeners.
After having been heavily criticised for his performance in Turin last week in the 2-1 loss to Juventus, his agent Jonathan Barnett stuck up for the former Tottenham winger saying: ‘We’ve been vindicated by these statistics and it’s what we’ve been saying all along.
‘It proves that people don’t know what they’re talking about when they criticise Gareth.
‘Real have to work with Gareth and pass the ball to him more. Give him more of the ball and let him show everybody what he’s good at. He’s going to be the best player at Real Madrid when his team-mates work with him and help him.
‘Hopefully Real will come to terms with this. I’m very upset that professional pundits don’t realise these facts. They should look at it more closely because it’s plain to see when you watch the games.’
Despite the claims that Bale is staying at Madrid and wants to prove himself, we think that a significant bid by either Chelsea or Manchester United would have him packing his bags and rushing back to the Premiership where he can speak English.
