Real Madrid employ Gonzalo Higuaín and Fábio Coentrão as bait in pursuit of Bale

According to The Times, Real Madrid started their pursuit of Gareth Bale by offering Gonzalo Higuaín and Fábio Coentrão in a player-plus-cash deal for the Tottenham Hotspur forward.

As Carlo Ancelotti was presented as Real head coach yesterday, his president was trying to secure the Spanish club’s stellar signing of the summer. Florentino Pérez wants to exploit Tottenham’s need for a top striker and left back while avoiding having to meet the valuation of Bale, which could be as high as £85 million.

Higuain Possible Transfer to Chesea Brings Bale Closer to Real

According to most influential sports newspapers in Spain Marca and AS, Jose Mourinho would be interested in getting to Chelsea his former player Gonzalo Higuain and might have offered 40 million euros (34,4 million pounds). This transaction brings Bale closer to Real because it helps raising the money need to get the player from Tottenham and leaves a vacancy in Real offensive.

Higuain transferred to Real Madrid in 2006 from argentinian side River Plate when he was just 19 years old and has had a difficult relationship with the fans because he is regarded as not very skilled and is famous for missing easy goals and his incapability to score goals in big games, specially in the final rounds of Champions League and against FC Barcelona. However, he is a player that always plays hard and puts all the effort in the field, which is a good thing in a team full of stars with big egos.

If Higuain is transferred to another club Real is left with just one pure striker, frenchman Karim Benzema. But at the same time this would give an opportunity to show their skills to the young players Alvaro Morata and Jesé Rodrguez, who have been playing very well in Real younger squads and specially this summer they have had an impressive performance with the spanish U21 and U20 sides.

In the last months it has been speculated that other teams were interested in him, first it was Juventus Turin, then Arsenal and Napoli. The italian side has already bought two players from Real Madrid this summer, Raul Albiol and Jose Callejón, and is building a strong project around new manager Rafa Benitez and using the 63 million euros gotten with the transfer of uruguayan striker Cavani to french side Paris Saint Germain.

First ever welsh player in Real Madrid

In the coming weeks Gareth Bale is going to move from Tottenham to Real Madrid and we are going to follow here every step he takes.

No player from Wales has ever played for Real Madrid, but Bale's fellow countryman John Benjamin Toshack was Real's manager in 1989/90 and again in 1999 with little success.

In fact few british players have showed their abilities in the spanish side. The first ever to do so was the scottish  John Fox Watson, who moved from Fulham to Madrid at the beginning of season 1948-49 and played just 1 game but became coach until the end of the year. The next one was the english Laurie Cunningham who played for Real between 1979 and 1983 with little success due to the many injuries he suffered.

In the most recent times, Steve McManaman played between 1999 and 2003 and never had a very important role in a team with big stars like Raul, Roberto Carlos and Figo, but he was much loved by Real's fans because he took part in the winning of 2 Champions Leagues and because he was a truly gentleman.

In the 2000s Michael Owen was a big disappointment, Jonathan Woodgate couldn't show his skills suffering injury after injury and David Beckham achieve great success personally, although he played for Real in a period of time with little success, with the Spanish championships dominated by FC Barcelona