Tommy Martin: How should we feel about Gareth Bale's decline?

Bale was an unlikely Galactico. Even at the peak of his powers, there was always an element of Billy’s Boots about the one-time Southampton left-back

Gareth Bale is "a great talent reduced to shuffling about for uneventful seven-minute cameos off the bench," writes Tommy Martin.

There is a story in football circles about when Gareth Bale first went to Madrid. He joined in 2013 for a then world record transfer fee of €100m, €6m more than Real had paid for Cristiano Ronaldo four years previously.

This was a delicate matter in Madrid. While the British papers reported the real fee, the Spanish press said Real had only paid €91m, lest Ronaldo be displeased at the knock to his status.