Tottenham shouldn’t sacrifice Eriksen to secure emotional return for Bale

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Real Madrid want to use Gareth Bale as a bargaining chip to try and land Tottenham playmaker Christian Eriksen, according to Spanish outlet Marca.

They report that Bale is slipping further and further out of favour at the Bernabeu, having only started two matches since his return from injury at the end of January.

Vinicius Junior and Lucas Vasquez are apparently now both ahead of the Welshman in the pecking order, leading Real to consider offloading him to finance further improvements to the squad.

One way they reportedly feel they can do that is by engineering a part-swap deal with Tottenham for Eriksen, or their London rivals Chelsea over Eden Hazard.

That offer would create quite the conundrum for Tottenham. Eriksen is still yet to sign a new long-term contract at the club and using him to get Bale back for an emotional return to north London may be the best use of his remaining value.

But Eriksen – who signed for Spurs for a reported £11.5m (BBC) in 2013 – is the younger man, with the more reliable recent injury record and is fully attuned with the demands of Mauricio Pochettino.

A return for Bale to round off a new-look Tottenham team would be the fairytale, picture-book ending but keeping Eriksen is a more logical choice.

The last thing Tottenham would need is to invest big on Bale’s wages, only for his injuries to flare up. They should do all they can to keep Eriksen, but if they do get Bale, it could still work out – and there should be fireworks either way.