Mirror, mirror on the wall..

On the day Gareth Bale is confirmed as a Real Madrid player for the frankly obscene sum of 100 million euros, I revisit two of his forebears. Like it was yesterday, I can remember the day Brian Clough of Nottingham Forest bought the striker Trevor Francis from Birmingham City for £1 million. It was 1979 and the country was beginning to face life after the now famous "winter of discontent". Unemployment was high. Strikes were commonplace. The first signs of the inner city riots of the early 1980s were beginning to show through and a football club was paying £1 million for the services of a striker. For the average Briton in 1979, the Trevor Francis transfer marked the day when football had really lost the plot. Little did we know where we would all be come September 2nd 2013. I have seen Bale play and he is a wonderful talent. There is no British club who wouldn't have given their right arm to have him on their books. That said, he is still one player and I can't help but fear that such a colossal signing on fee is setting him up to fail. Think about it for a minute. How many goals would he have to score to ever justify that amount? How many shirts would have to be sold? How much would his new club have to reclaim in marketing? Whatever the answers to these questions, it is obvious that the Spanish giants can't hope to recoup such a huge sum. On a more fundamental level, they have done one thing - they have ensured that he is not playing for any of their rivals, domestic or abroad. As far as my limited understanding goes, he is also just as liable to a major injury as any other player. As they say, you pay your money and you take your choice. The track records of British players being transferred to Italy and Spain are not generally great. There are of course exceptions. I started to support Leeds United in 1973 long after their most famous player had left the club for the Italian giants Juventus. Like Gareth Bale, John Charles was also Welsh. His name is still uttered with reverence now all these years later. For a start he played in a completely different era. Juventus payed a then record £65,000 for him in 1957. History suggests it was money well spent. In 1997, the Juventus fans voted him their best overseas import of their first 100 years in existence. John Charles was unique in so many ways, it is difficult to guess what his worth would be today. World class as both a centre half and as a centre forward, he was never booked in his entire career - never mind sent off. A real gentleman both on and off the field, John Charles remains the benchmark against whom British players are measured when they seek their fortunes in Spain and Italy. Bale will reportedly be paid £300,000 per week before tax. By my reckoning, he will need to be scoring goals in his sleep as well as during his waking hours. The weight of the transfer record did not burden John Charles but I suspect Gareth Bale might not be so lucky. While I wish him luck, I can't help but feel that the golden days of football were a long time ago before the money men got their avaricious hands on it. It is said that modern players have longer careers because they take more care of their fitness. John Charles began his career in 1948 and played his final match in 1972 so that is 24 seasons by my reckoning. Bale has a tall mountain to climb before he can be compared to the mighty Charles.