Real Madrid may reportedly consider selling both Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in order to fund the signing of Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain.
Neymar moved to PSG last summer in a record-breaking €222m (£200m) transfer from Barcelona, with the player scoring 25 goals and registering 16 assists in his debut Ligue 1 campaign.
Ronaldo is the top goalscorer in Madrid's history while Bale scored a stunning overhead kick to win the Champions League for Los Blancos on Saturday, but Guillem Balague believes that both could be axed so that Madrid president Florentino Perez can land Neymar.
"[Bale] found a good opportunity to say what he had inside," Balague told Sky Sports News.
"Up until very recently both Real Madrid and Bale were talking to each other. He was saying: 'I want to stay' and the club was saying 'We want you to stay'. But I think he feels that as soon as he leaves the room Real Madrid are talking differently and of course he feels frustrated. He just basically wants to play every single week. [Zinedine] Zidane can't be saying the coach is disappointed with Gareth Bale and how he has reacted to being on the bench. You see the quality of Gareth Bale in the game yesterday and you wonder how he could not start a game and how he could not start a Champions League final. That's what is in the head of Gareth Bale. He sees himself as one of the top five players in the world and as such he has to play either at Real Madrid or somewhere else.
"But I'm pretty sure we are [also] talking about Cristiano Ronaldo. It is all linked because of course the dream of Florentino Perez is to get Neymar and I think he would not be completely sad if he gets enough money from the sale of both of them to get Neymar. If the possibility of Neymar leaving PSG is still Real - PSG are saying 'no chance' - but if he was and Florentino Perez gets the money from the sale of Bale and Cristiano [Ronaldo] then Florentino may just open the doors."
Ronaldo and Bale cost Madrid a combined transfer fee of £165.3 million and were both world record fees at the time of signing.
Matthew Jones
