Zinedine Zidane Denies Disrespecting Gareth Bale

There have been a lot of ongoing sagas in the world of football over the course of the last few years, but there aren’t all too many that have been quite as odd as Zinedine Zidane and Gareth Bale’s rivalry. The two men quite clearly don’t like each other and it doesn’t seem like they ever have done, to the point where Bale is seemingly being forced out of the club by the Frenchman.

Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen, but either way, the latest actions of Zidane has certainly caused some controversy with many believing that the Real boss has been disrespectful to Bale in regards to comments about him leaving the club imminently. As reported by BBC and The Guardian, however, Zinedine doesn’t quite see it that way.

Finding his feet again

“I haven’t shown a lack of respect towards anyone,” Zidane said.

“What I said the other day is that the club was working on Bale’s exit.

“I’ve always said the same thing: the players are the most important ones in all of this. Whenever there’s a player involved, I’ll always back them.”

“Gareth didn’t come on [against Bayern Munich] because he didn’t want to, and he said it was because the club was working on his exit,” he said.

“The club is doing what it has to and that’s all there is to it. Bale is currently part of the squad and I respect that. That’s the most important thing for me.”

The general belief is that Bale will continue to train as normal with the club, before eventually, and finally, making his way out of the Bernabeu. It is a proposed move that has been a really long time coming, and even that may be an understatement. Bale, in the eyes of many, isn’t the player he used to be in terms of his pace, but you can’t deny that the 30 year old still holds an important place in the history books – and on top of that, he also happens to be a world class footballer.

Make the difference

Nobody knows where he’s going to end up next, but what we do know is this: Zinedine Zidane seems to have an issue with things that he can’t control, and he also seems to have a problem with his attitude. As the manager of one of world football’s biggest clubs, you would think that he’d be a little bit more respectful than he has been over the course of the last few months since he made his return to Madrid.

This kind of arrogance is enough to divide an entire squad if given the opportunity, and that’s no exaggeration. Sure, Zidane may not have done all too much wrong in the eyes of a lot of fans, but it feels like we’re going to see whether or not that’s actually the case as the season goes on.

Karma is a funny thing, and we think this move is going to haunt Zidane in the long run.