Gareth Bale’s agent has rubbished summer rumours that linked the Wales international with a move away from Real Madrid and to Manchester United.
Jonathan Barnett was speaking at the Soccerex conference in Manchester and the subject of Bale’s future at Santiago Bernabeu was raised.
“He was nowhere near leaving, that was all stupid paper talk,” he said, the Guardian reports.
“He is very happy at Real Madrid and hopefully he’ll stay for the rest of his career. He’s loving it there and things are going well for him.”
Barnett added that he expects Bale, signed from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 for a world record fee, will hold the record for a long time.
“You have [Cristiano] Ronaldo, who is getting to the end of his career, and [Lionel] Messi as well,” he continued.
“In Spain they have clauses which come out and state how you much you have to pay [to break a contract], so at the moment he is the most valuable and it will be a while before someone breaks it.”
Barnett also offered his take on the David De Gea situation after the goalkeeper’s move to Madrid from United collapsed on deadline day, rejecting the suggestion there was more to the break down than simple human error.
“It was a complete mess up. I don’t think there is any Machiavellian plot, I just think someone has made a stupid mistake,” he insisted.
“It is [De Gea] who suffers. I don’t know who is to blame but it is certainly not the player.”
