Cardiff City’s pursuit of Gareth Bale has escalated in recent hours, with chairman Mehmet Dalman set to lead discussions for a deal to bring the Wales captain to the club.
After Wales qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Sunday night, the possibility of signing the Welsh star grew significantly. Dalman’s decision to go back to the UK to lead the discussions, as reported by the BBC on Monday, has been verified.
The Bluebirds have been anxiously awaiting Wales’ World Cup play-off final against Ukraine, believing that if Rob Page’s team qualifies for the November tournament, it will put them in a strong position to acquire Bale.
Bale himself said that the outcome of that Wales-Ukraine match would be significant in deciding his future, stating before Sunday’s clash: “I’ll decide [my future] after the game. There is a lot of ifs and buts, but I think we need to see what happens and [the result] is the key to everything.”
That outcome at Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday night has now been interpreted as a tentative green signal for Cardiff to go on with their attempts to thrash out a deal to sign the 32-year-old Wales captain.
Cardiff are now in the midst of a massive cost-cutting effort, slashing their pay bill and attempting to fill their team with quality on lesser prices in order to counteract the financial harm caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
That is in contrast to Bale’s palatial £600,000-per-week contract in Madrid since 2016, although it is claimed that all sides have realized that a dramatic concession would have to be made on that front in order for a transaction to be approved.