Bale price set at €159 million.

[Ron Obvious]

1. Insanity

Aside from the financial madness, just imagine if he would go for, say, even 100 million or so. I could easily see him being crushed under the weight of having to live up to the expectations that would accompany a sum like that. It happened to Torres.

Bale strikes me as quiet and fairly modest (like Torres) and it wouldn't take too many bad games before the Spanish-equivalent chants of "what a waste of money!" would start ringing out. Proving yourself with that dressing room of egos and prima donnas wouldn't help.

I can understand the lure of money, but I would advise him strongly against going there. He's just not good enough to justify a sum like that.