Bale warned something has gone ‘terribly, terribly wrong’ amid summer transfer talk

Gareth Bale’s struggles at Real Madrid have seen things go “terribly, terribly wrong”, says John Toshack, with a man being linked with Manchester United and Tottenham urged to make an important decision on his future.

The 2018-19 campaign proved to be another testing one for the Wales international in Spain.

He did take in 42 appearances across all competitions and pass the 100-goal mark for Real, but fell out of favour when Zinedine Zidane returned to the Santiago Bernabeu for a second spell as manager.

Transfer talk was immediately sparked, with a return to the Premier League being mooted for the former Spurs star.

Ex-Wales and Madrid boss Toshack admits that Bale needs to decide quickly what his next move will be, with the 29-year-old looking a shadow of his former self amid the uncertainty surrounding his mental state and struggles for form.

"The situation that he's in at Real Madrid certainly can't be helping him," Toshack told BBC Sport Wales.

"It needs sorting out as soon as possible... because when you look at this player, what he's shown that he can do and look at what he's producing at the moment, something is going terribly, terribly wrong somewhere."

Wales has played twice for Wales since the 2018-19 domestic campaign came to a close, but he made little impact against Croatia or Hungary and has been urged to end a “battle” with Madrid that he is not going to win.

Toshack added: "I would have thought he would have been absolutely banging the dressing-room door down to get out there on the pitch at this particular moment in time, to show people that they're making a mistake by not playing him.

"People talk about maybe the fitness levels are not there, but I don't go along with that 100%. Bale's performances recently have been disappointing, no question about that.

"And I think the sooner that things get sorted out for him now the better it'll be for Wales and for himself because, from what I can see over here, there's not the brightest future for him at Real Madrid.

"There's a bit of a battle going on here between his agent and Madrid at the moment, I think, that needs to be sorted out."