Gareth Bale: 'Something's gone terribly wrong at Real Madrid' - John Toshack
- Published
Ryan Giggs defends Gareth Bale's form
Former Real Madrid and Wales boss John Toshack says Gareth Bale must decide his club future, as something has "gone terribly wrong" for the Wales star.
Bale is out of favour under Real boss Zinedine Zidane and Toshack says Bale's "battle" needs to be resolved.
Toshack says the situation contributed to Bale's disappointing performances in Wales' recent Euro 2020 qualifiers.
"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."
It comes amid reports a potential summer move to Manchester United is off the table.
Lack of game time
Toshack had two spells in charge of Real and gave Bale his international debut as a 16-year-old in 2006 during a six-year stint as Wales boss.
He watched as Bale struggled in Wales' back-to-back qualifying defeats away to Croatia and Hungary, that left current manager Ryan Giggs admitting automatic qualification would now be difficult for the Euro 2016 semi-finalists.
Bale missed a significant chance in the game in Budapest, although Giggs defended the 29-year-old, citing his lack of game time at Real in recent months.
But Toshack said: "I would have thought he (Bale) 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."