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Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has said he has no problems with Gareth Bale as the forward is closer to ending his seven-year spell at the club and returning to Tottenham Hotspur.
Bale flew to London on Friday to end his loan and return to his former club after a difficult final season at the Bernabéu.
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Sources told ESPN that Zidane’s relationship with Bale had deteriorated to the point that it “had become personal” and the Wales international was benched frequently, out of the league clash. Champions last month with Manchester City.
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“We’ve never had a problem,” Zidane said at a press conference ahead of Madrid’s La Liga opener at Real Sociedad. “I know what he has done for this club. Nobody will change that … It is not done yet, so I cannot say more, but we have not had problems as some say. If there is a change now for him, all I can do is to wish him well.
“I have not spoken with him. What he has done, he has done very well, nobody can argue with that. He has won many things here … We know the player he is and what he has done in seven years.” at Real Madrid. It’s what he wants to do. These are things that happen in a team, and in football. “
Bale scored just two league goals in 16 appearances last season and was booed by fans at the Bernabéu, but Zidane refused to accept that his life would be easier with Bale’s departure.
“It has never been a burden,” he added. “I have 25 players. It is true that we had difficulties when perhaps he did not play as he should for various reasons, that will always happen, but it is not a burden on my shoulders. It is work. If it is not Gareth, this year it will be someone else.”
Zidane also denied that Bale had left Madrid a year earlier, when his move to China failed.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Life is like that. You have to accept things. If he stayed, it was for a reason. The important thing is what the player wants to do.”
Bale will be joined in north London by left-back Sergio Reguilón, who spent last season on loan from Madrid at Sevilla.
“We have two players in each position,” added Zidane. “I have two lateral [Marcelo and Ferland Mendy] And I can’t have three, or four, or five. What we can do is wish Reguilón the best, he had a good season at Sevilla and he deserves to be playing for Tottenham now. “
Source: espn.co.uk
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