While Ronaldo clearly remains Madrid’s best player, the restructuring of the team around Bale may not go down too well with the Portugal international. “I think we gave the fans good football to watch”, Galatasaray coach Hamza Hamzaoğlu said in his post-game remarks. There’s nothing wrong with his stats, given that the Welsh has scored 39 goals and delivered 31 assists over 92 appearances.
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But Benitez has told a press conference that Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Jese and Co will soon be scoring freely.
Galatasaray could end up facing Real in the Champions League group stages this season as they booked a place in the group stages for the fourth consecutive season.
A starting central position moreover would mean more bodies around Bale, making it harder for him to shift the ball on to his left foot and deliver crosses or shots from range; something he does with great regularity when fielded wide on the right.
But the negotiations with United have been protracted and many observers in Spain now believe Madrid is likely to wait until next season, when De Gea could be acquired without paying a huge fee to the English club. It’s clear that he is a shy person and he doesn’t speak fluent Spanish yet, and those two things do not let him become the leader he wants to be.
Lavezzi may not be Arsenal’s top target but he is said to be available for just £8.5million and signing a quality player for such a bargain amount could turn out to be a decent deal for the Gunners to reinforce their attacking lineup.
Alot of people at Real Madrid are heading into the new season facing mounting pressure.
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The former of those is the most damning indictment of Perez’s reign: the fact that his team, assembled at enormous cost, have only succeeded in winning one league title in seven years simply isn’t good enough.
