Was Gareth Bale worth the price tag?

And Real Madrid are compensated with an even larger sponsorhsip deal next time they renegotiate!

I haven't read all posts so I'm probably not adding something new, but what has to be taken into consideration is really both Real and to a lesser extent Barca are obsessed with Galaticos "stars" Bale has become greater since leaving Spurs , there are also muted rumours that Real are chasing Suarez for 100 mill for next season where that leaves Karim and Isco who knows, but overall there's no rational to both Spanish Giants who apply massive financial force on one another.

Cooper is right. The idea that Real receive that much additional money from shirt sales is incorrect. Adidas, in this case, by far profits the most.

So does that mean when Messi scores 70 goals in a season he should be worth 300 million? Nonsense!

Actually to spend €100 instead of €50 for a player of similar ability is brain dead. On top of which Suarez is a better player.

Real Madrid doesn't bid these amounts because they believe the player is worth it on the pitch. They do it so their club becomes the leading media headline during and following the transfer deadline. This results in millions of shirt and 'membership' sales worldwide.

I'm really not sure I agree there Steve. I think he just went into a decline that was actually more mental than anything. Certainly his OPTA stats point to that theory being correct. He still looks pretty damn quick to me. Anyhow, my point mate was really that players don't necessarily improve and don't always even maintain form after a certain age, so in that respect it's not a slam dunk that Suarez would go to Real and carry on in the same form as he has done at Liverpool. Whereas I still think Bale will improve from here..........

Cooper, if that were true and it was as simple as you suggest then why do Real put such a huge emphasis on the individual image rights of their players?

Yes, what were they thinking when they signed Bale ?! I mean to say, all those experienced people at one of the world's most successful clubs, signing all those big names & dealing with all the factors inherent in maintaining a team & competing at the highest level, clearly 'they' haven't got a clue. Blending him into an already successful squad, making the CL final & competing for the league title, winning a domestic cup comp, surely all designed to cover up the fact that Bale is clearly not very good & they only play him because they paid so much money. It seems they even conspired to have his team mates set him up for some easy goals to make it look like he could play a bit ! Brain dead indeed.....

Madrid may be offering this but Suarez will be staying at Liverpool next season. He has as good as said so. Furthermore, Sergio Aguero and Edison Cavani are Madrids's 1st and 2nd choices before Suarez.

You cant use Torres in this age peak assessment. Torres is a crock because of injuries have cruelled his speed which was his greatest weapon apart from his finishing. I think we will see a different Torres and Inter next year where he is reportedly going. The slower pace of Serie A will suit him better than the Premier League.

Magila, I think it's far from brain dead and find it incredible you can look at it in such a simplified way. Have made my arguments below. One other point I forgot to make is his age. He's only 24 now and will still improve. You're suggesting Suarez is better value. He's possibly a better player right now (but I don't think there's a huge amount in it) but Bale will get better. Suarez is already 27 and probably into his peak years. There is nothing to suggest often that all players improve after they are 25-27 years old and we have seen many players fade such as Fernando Torres. Even Thierry Henry went downhill pretty rapidly after he joined Barca although he was a little bit older (I think). You might be seeing the very best of Suarez right now and there's no guarantee he'll carry on playing at his elevated players. Some players just have purple patches.

Didn't have any doubt about the price tag or his prospects before the transfer. Was always in complete disbelief at people writing him off before he even kicked a ball from Real. But like people have said above lets see how he goes over the 5 year period and before that, the UCL final next weekend.

I don't think you can look at the transfer one dimensionally. I agree that for that money, I would expect the finished article, as Michelle says above, he is not there yet but he may well be. I think a huge amount will be dictated with how Real handle the physical side of his being. To me, his body seems to struggle to cope with the physical attributes that make him so potent, i.e. he seems a bit injury prone to me. We've seen players with fantastic physical attributes such as Roy Keane, Duncan Ferguson, Michael Owen (all very different players but their physical prowess were huge factors in different ways, either strength, size or pace) who all faded as they have got older and spent a lot of time on the treatment table. Even Ryan Giggs had to curtail his playing style to keep his hamstrings in one piece. The other aspect is the commercial side. Everyone said Real were mad when they paid 23M for Beckham, he paid for himself within two seasons. I don't know how many 'Bale 11' shirts Real are selling but I'll bet it's plenty and over a 5 year contract he may well prove a bargain in that respect, as long as he keeps doing it on the pitch. He's actually had a far better first season than I expected. Next year will be stellar possibly. He had zero pre season this time to speak of. This time, he'll have four weeks with his feet up whilst nearly everyone else plays on through the World Cup. If he has a good pre season, he'll come back fresh and fit amongst a league full of tired players, defenders look out.............

Reports yesterday suggest Real Madrid are offering €110m for Suarez now

Is he worth it? You have to ask who else they might have bought for the money. For a little more than half the money RM could have had Suarez. So NO he's not worth it. What a brain dead choice, bale...

I don't have a view as to whether Bale's transfer was or was not worth the mooted £85 million (despite the fact that the question certainly has merit, in truth, how can we ever test the value of such things?). I'd like to look at it from a slightly different perspective, looking more generically at the value of British players. A few years back, the Guardian did some research to show how the wages of British players (within the EPL) were far in excess of foreign players at a similar level, or even foreign players of a higher standard. Over the years, I have developed a theory as to why this is. Various "home-grown" rules apply in the European competitions, and with the EPL clubs in particular, sourcing so many players these days from other countries, it becomes quite tough meeting those home-grown rules (noting that Platini is on a bit of a mission to make these measures even stricter within his overall "fair play" push). What this means is that English clubs, especially the top English clubs put a premium on home grown players: they pay them higher wages and they make higher demands on the transfer market for them - because they have a value that goes a bit beyond purely what they produce on the park - they help the top clubs fill their home-grown quota when entering European competitions.