Gareth Bale's decision to snub Premier League interest in favour of a move to LA FC is understandable but disappointing.
That’s the verdict of Mirror Sport columnist Stan Collymore, the former Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Aston Villa star who would have loved to have seen the Welshman proving he still has what it takes to compete in the world’s toughest league.
Bale, 32, has joined LA as a free agent after leaving Real Madrid, with whom he won five Champions Leagues, this summer. He needed to find a new club to make sure he goes to the World Cup with Wales in tip-top condition and had offers from the top flight and his hometown club, Cardiff, but opted to move to the City of Angels instead.
Collymore said: “LA are briefing it’s not just about a six-month deal but it is really. I don’t necessarily see that they’re trying to sign marquee names to move the game forward there as much because there has been a shift towards wanting to produce better younger players themselves.
“So it’s more a case of, ‘We have a guy here who is available, he can play three or four months for us, we may well get into the play-offs, which would make the last game just before the World Cup, and that dovetails perfectly’. But I don’t think this is one where Bale will be pushing the game forward because, with the greatest of respect, I don’t think even Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Steven Gerrard, David Beckham or Wayne Rooney did that.
“Becks probably did more at the beginning in terms of saying, ‘Have a look at this league, see what you think'. But for Bale as an individual, he would have got more out of a Brentford, living in London, playing a bit of golf. Don’t get me wrong, I get the LA thing, he’s going to be living in a beautiful part of the world and playing with little real expectation, so he can monitor his fitness and get into the swing of playing regular football, which of course he hasn’t done for some time now.
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“I’m sure he sat down and thought, ‘Look, going to play full-on at Cardiff against a load of Championship opponents who all want a piece of me or Brentford where they may lose more games than they win, LA instead seems a good halfway house’. But I can’t help thinking a player who has won what he has could at least have looked at a Crystal Palace, Brentford or Brighton and said, ‘I still have something to give and I want to show the Premier League what it is’.
“It didn’t even have to be the Premier League, he could have gone to Marseille or Borussia Dortmund. But it will be a cameo in LA now to keep ticking over and, like some of the decisions he has made, such as the China one which fell through, playing as high as he can as regularly as he can now seems anathema to Bale. He could have done it at a higher level and maybe should have done, but perhaps he just wants a little more of the easy life in Los Angeles enjoying their sunshine-filled and plentiful golf courses.”
