If you write about football, expect to be considered an idiot from time to time. It happens to the best of them, the worst of them, and me too. It’s a shady industry, as is any with that much money washing around it, and the more you hear, the more you dislike the whole enterprise.
There is also an ‘in the know’ aspect that has always played a huge part in the game, but has grown considerably with the rise of social media. Someone like Fabrizio Romano can become a household name via the strength of his contacts. He’s not a writer and doesn’t need to be, he has the inside track and is often first with the transfer exclusives.
Local reporters do not have a network of contacts throughout the game. They know the club they cover and have their finger on a solitary pulse, so when the Gareth Bale circus comes to town, a one man industry, it quickly becomes apparent that everyone is painfully out of their depth.
Bale is the finest player this country has ever produced and at Real Madrid was reportedly the third highest player in the world, behind only Neymar and Lionel Messi, on £28.8m-a-year. With his obscene contract winding down, it had long been speculated where he would end up next. Maybe he would throw his hometown club a bone we all occasionally joked.
Then suddenly, and inexplicably, it was on. It’s time to reflect on the Cardiff news story of 2022, or any other year.
It is probably a fair indication of how far Bale’s stock has dropped that his options ended up being Cardiff and LAFC, but anyone that watched the World Cup will be left in no doubt that he is no longer a Champions League calibre performer. The trademark acceleration has long since left him and his influence was considerably waned, but the aura never will. He created it, earned it and will always wear it like a badge.
It’s hard to imagine Bale toiling away in the Championship. The tempo is far higher than international football and the schedule is stuffed with games. He would have created a soap opera that would have followed him around the country, twice every week and it would have hindered Cardiff’s squad rebuild. Steve Morison, a former international team-mate, would have been under huge pressure to pick him as much as possible and not the most tolerant of interviewees, it would have dominated his attention and worked his nerves.
To see him in a Cardiff shirt though, even for the odd game or a few minutes here and there, it would all have been worth it. Opportunities like this rarely come along and when they do, you jump all over them.
When you try to piece together what happened back in June, it seems like LA was always the preferred destination. The club has since revealed that Bale’s representatives reached out to them immediately after World Cup qualification had been confirmed. Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman was also sounded out and a proposal was put together, but we now know it was never more than a back-up option.
I’m not in the know, nor do I pretend to be or aspire to be. I am interested in the full picture regarding all things Cardiff City though and I speak to lots of people. I have earned people’s trust over the years and they have in return earned mine. I therefore hear a lot more than I ever say. This can be both a blessing and a curse. You have context that you often can’t use and information you can’t share, as much as you might like to.
I have never experienced anything even close to the hysteria that surrounded Bale’s links with Cardiff and I doubt I ever will again. Social media is frequently not very nice, but during this period, there was an unprecedented amount of aggression and frustration. Twitter felt like a no go area. If you wrote about anything at all, you would be bombarded by unrelated, Bale-related replies.
There was also more bullshit doing the rounds than ever before. Everyone had a rumour, an inside track or a forthright opinion and they all contradicted each other. I was happy to bury my head in the sand and wait it all out, but then someone I trust absolutely told me that Bale was having his medical at Cardiff’s training ground.
Actually, what I was told was that Bale was having his medical in Cardiff training gear. I still cannot confirm nor deny what he was wearing at the time, but it is true that the medical took place. Of course, Cardiff share a base with the Welsh national side, so it is not uncommon to find Bale there and he was actually recently using their facilities in the aftermath of the World Cup. Little did we know that the medical was in fact for LA.
Armed with this news, which looked as solid as you’re ever likely to get, I made the grave mistake of sharing it. I wouldn’t do it again and I regretted it immediately, but I was excited and wanted everyone else to be excited too. Everyone was searching for answers and I was in a position where I was able to help, or so I very briefly thought.
What actually happened is that my phone exploded and it was rather terrifying. As expected, half of the people shared my excitement, but the other half were furious because they demanded more information. More than I was able to provide, which is why I should have left it all well alone. I said ‘It’s happening’ because that’s all that needed to be said, but it wasn’t enough and people quickly got very angry.
The threats and ridicule got so great that I took an emergency break from social media for a few days. When I returned, there was still no resolution, to the Bale situation or the grief I was getting. When he finally joined LA, I was told by some that it was over for me. My credibility was gone, while others went a bit further and suggested that I should be put against a wall and shot.
You live and you learn. Very early on, I discovered that the worst thing that you can do when writing about football is to take away people’s hope. I now know that too much can be just as damaging.
I’m sure the whole Bale thing will linger around me like a bad smell for a long time yet. I’m prepared for that, understand it and probably deserve. I also know that writing this will likely trigger a fresh bout, but I always wanted to write about it all, as a cautionary tale if nothing else, and enough time has probably passed.
What was interesting was that local journalists, who were completely in the dark, were obliged or forced to write about the Bale situation, but the likes of Romano and The Athletic’s David Ornstein steered well clear throughout. There were no rumours or speculation, it just eventually happened and was announced. It was also rather insensitive for everything to take place at Cardiff’s base, while they were the other interested party, but what’s done is done.
Transfers of this magnitude operate on a different plane and it was unchartered territory for most people orbiting the story. Bale made a lifestyle choice in moving to Los Angeles, in relative anonymity, but also chose a team challenging for trophies and they made a clean sweep. His contribution was minimal, but he was still on hand in the final moments of the final game for his Hollywood ending.
The transfer window, which reopens again tomorrow, tends to bring out the worst in football supporters. A tribal arrogance and sense of entitlement which overshadows the actual football. Bale’s brief flirtation with Cardiff was the perfect storm of hopes and dreams, which then became fury and spite. It brought out the worst in people, including myself, and will forever remain the ultimate ‘what if’ moment. The circus that came to town and kept on driving.