If there is one certainty about Gareth Bale this season, it's that every time he steps off the pitch, he will be followed by negative headlines from the Madrid media, with MARCA often at the front of the vanguard.
The Welshman missed his fair share of chances as Real Madrid missed out on a Champions League final place last night at the hands of Juventus.
We'll be talking to John Giles and Graham Hunter about Bale, his performance and the reaction to it on Off The Ball tonight, but before we do here's what MARCA and co have been saying about him:
In an article ominously entitled, Real Madrid's Seven Deadly Sins, MARCA had this to say:
"The Welshman is untouchable under Ancelotti, but his performance was in a similar vein to the rest of his season. Bale is a starter despite not showing that he deserves to be on the pitch."
A review of Bale's performance written by Santiago Sigueo had this nugget:
"No one can say that Bale was peripheral this time, but he also didn't have the desired effect".
Meanwhilein AS, Guillem Balague of Sky Sports' Revista de la Liga fame suggests that: "Bale is suffering from a 'small job, great player' syndrome. He came with the aura and price tag of a great player, but [Real] have demanded other tasks that are suited to another type of player. They have demanded that he runs up and down the right flank, that he moves around Ronaldo, and puts in crosses from the right - which is not what made him famous. That small role is not to his liking."
Many of you might not be aware of Tomas Roncero, but he is a vocal Real Madrid fan who also works as a journalist on TV and for AS and in his post-match piece, he wasn't praising Bale in a section called Morata 2 -0 Bale:
"The Welshman, who through his agent was complaining that his team-mates don't pass to him, yesterday got as many passes as he wanted in order to shine ... but his vision was as clogged up as it was in Turin.
"It's time they started to demand more of Bale. His second course was worse than his first, and that is terrible for a player of his age (25). Do they really think he is a future Balon D'Or winner? Well, he's not on the right track."
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