Coaches cannot tell the whole truth in press conferences. Ancelotti himself said it three weeks ago, questioned whether Pochettino was telling the truth in the Mbappé case, by ensuring that he stayed safe at PSG. The question was transferred to him in a Bale code, and there he became more serious. The great luck that Gareth has had in the last four years is that, first Zidane and then Ancelotti, they have been the coaches of Real Madrid. Otherwise, with another technical profile on the white bench, Bale would have been privately and publicly massacred.
The Welsh footballer is one of Ancelotti’s two discards for tonight’s game against Betis, so he will never play again at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Not at least with the Real Madrid shirt. Carletto already warned yesterday that he was not one hundred percent and that he had to assess whether he included him in the final list of 23 summoned or he was one of the two discarded. The solution seemed simple. With the entire squad available, except for Alaba, and given the non-existent involvement of Bale, the logical thing was to leave the Welshman off the list. He has not even made merits to say goodbye to the Bernabéu on the green.
That was the intention of Ancelotti, who a month and a half ago, after Bale’s brilliant performance with his team in the first play-off tie for the World Cup, just days after being removed from the call for the classic, stood up for him: « Gareth is fine, as we saw with Wales. And he wants to show it here, with his team. He wants to go well. It would be fair for him to say a good goodbye to the Santiago Bernabéu. He has entered the history of this club with his goals, his games and his titles».
He wasn’t the only one. Casemiro also asked for respect for Bale after the whistles received in Madrid-Getafe forty days ago, in what were surely his last minutes in a Madrid shirt: «Bale is a historic player for the club, he has scored many important goals and when they whistle for him, you’re whistling for the history of Real Madrid.”
Since then, his voluntary isolation has reached unsuspected scenarios. He did not want to appear in the photo of the decisive victory at the Sánchez Pizjuán or participate in its celebration. There Madrid achieved a giant comeback in the second half (from 2-0 to 2-3) to leave the League sentenced. He wasn’t in the title match either, against Espanyol. The day before he left training citing back spasms, an ailment that also prevented him from going to the stadium, being at the Bernabéu celebration and the subsequent one at Cibeles. He has not been in any of the three European comebacks in the white coliseum either. Bale has been invisible for months and not even Ancelotti’s good will has served for him to have a worthy farewell: “Whether he plays tomorrow or not, it’s not important. The important thing is that Bale has been part of the history of this club,” Ancelotti said yesterday, hinting at what has been confirmed today. Bale will not say goodbye to the Bernabéu.
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