Gareth Bale reveals brutally honest truth about working under Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid

Gareth Bale has given a surprising insight into Zinedine Zidane's training ground methods during one of the club's most successful periods.

On the most recent episode of Stick to Football, regulars Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jill Scott were joined by five-time Champions League winner Bale.

The 36-year-old, who announced his retirement in 2023, just weeks after captaining Wales at the World Cup, gave an insight into his decision to hang up his boots before speaking about his spell at Real Madrid.

As well as discussing the pressures that came with playing for Los Blancos, Bale spoke about working under the great Zinedine Zidane, who became the first coach in history to win three Champions Leagues in a row.

The Welshman explained that it takes a certain type of coach to manage arguably the biggest club in world football. In fact, he brought up Xabi Alonso's recent dismissal when speaking about the subject.

“I wasn’t surprised that Xabi Alonso was sacked by Real Madrid. If you try to overthink things tactically at Real... you simply need to be excellent at managing people. Keeping players happy. Allowing them to do what they do best on the pitch."

Bale proceeded to bring up Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane, two of the club's most successful managers, as examples to follow.

“Ancelotti? He was like your best friend. But he had a switch: if you trained poorly, he would absolutely tear you apart, anyone. The same applied at half-time, but he had the perfect balance," he said.

“Carlo knew how to manage people better than anyone," Bale added. "Even if you weren’t playing, he made you feel like his best friend. He had the ability to keep everyone in good spirits and create all the conditions for collective work."

Then, to the surprise of some, Bale said that Zidane would rarely dive into the tactical aspect of the game unless they were coming up against top opposition. And even then, it was only a brief session.

“Zidane as a coach? Honestly, he didn’t do much," said Bale. "We’d go over some tactics before matches against Barcelona or Bayern—15 minutes of defensive work. Other than that, it was just possession games, shooting drills, and then we’d go home.

"But he earned respect thanks to his qualities as a player. He participated in training, even beat me a few times – he’s still in great shape."

Zidane was a huge admirer of Bale. Image credit: Getty

Gareth Bale was 'blocked' from joining Manchester United due to 'secret agreement'

Manchester United were heavily linked with a move for Gareth Bale on numerous occasions.

Back in the summer of 2013, after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes wanted to kickstart a new era with the marquee signing of Bale, who had just enjoyed one of the best campaigns of his career at Spurs.

Speaking on Stick to Football, Bale confirmed he did have conversations with United, specifically with Moyes, and also admitted that United's offer was higher than what Real paid to bring him to the Bernabeu.

"United and Madrid were the two teams. I did talk to United, yeah. They actually bid more than Madrid." Bale admitted.

Asked if he was ever going to sign for United, Bale quickly replied: "No."

He then explained that he was set on joining Real as Spurs chairman Daniel Levy refused to sell him to a Premier League rival.

"I spoke with David Moyes. Not [Ed Woodward], maybe my agent did," Bale revealed.

"My heart was set on Madrid. I had something in place with Daniel Levy, maybe more of a gentleman’s agreement, because he didn’t want to sell me to a rival.

"So if a team did come in from Spain, Italy or wherever, I could potentially go because if we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, which we didn't, I was then able to go there. We had that gentleman’s agreement, even though he made it very tough.”