The saga over the future of Wales and Real Madrid star Gareth Bale's future has been ongoing for at least two seasons now, and it won't stop over the course of the summer to come. Everybody knows that Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane doesn't want the player at the club. The fans share that opinion. They've bored of Bale's long injury absences, and his perceived lack of commitment to the club hasn't helped matters anyway. The breaking point came when he made the highly questionable decision to pose with a flag that suggested he puts golf before Madrid, and ever since then, it's been a question of when, not if, the player will depart Spain.

When the history books come to be written, they'll show that Bale has done well for Madrid. He's put in spectacular performances and scored competition-winning goals. His prime years at the club just happened to be overshadowed by the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a footballing brand. It's not without reason that his likeness has been used as the selling point of online slots like 'Striker Goes Wild,' among other endorsements. Bale might have cost almost one hundred million Euros to buy, but he's never been world-famous enough to be used for marketing online slots. Working out what happens to him next, though, is perhaps more difficult than trying to guess the outcome of the next spin of the reels on an online slots game. 

The smart money says that Bale goes back to the English Premier League to finish his career - but to which club? We’ve looked at the options, and here’s our take. 

Tottenham Hotspur

A return to Spurs would bring Bale full circle. He may have first caught the world's eye while he was playing for Southampton, but Spurs is where he turned from a left-back to a left-winger and became a goal-scoring, match-winning star player. Spurs aren't the team they were a year ago when they made it to the final of the Champions League, but they're still a club who aspires to be in contention for championships every season. Jose Mourinho has lamented the lack of quality players available to him at the club several times in recent months, and he'd definitely approve of Bale being brought in. Oddly though, there's been almost no suggestion in the press that this is likely to happen. 

Manchester United

Bale has been linked with Manchester United every season since he left England for Spain. As a fast, aggressive, eye-catching player, he fits the mold of what United fans like to see at their club, and under previous bosses Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal it wouldn't have been hard to picture this transfer happening. Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, though, United are a different proposition. Solskjaer's focus in the transfer market has been to make United a younger, leaner team with fewer expensive superstars and more stars of the future, still hungry to make their mark on the game. Bale is by no means old, but he is over 30. Spending huge money on acquiring him wouldn't fit with what United have been trying to do during the past twelve months. The window for this move to happen may not have closed yet - but it's narrower now than it's ever been. 

Everton

On the surface, this might look like an unlikely prospect. Everton, while a respectable Premier League team, are not championship challengers. At the start of this season, they were more concerned about avoiding relegation than they were shooting for European qualification. All of that changed, though, when they appointed Carlo Ancelotti as head coach to replace the disappointing Marco Silva. Bringing Ancelotti into the club was a statement of intent, and since his arrival, the Toffees have moved up the table steadily to the point where they could, when the league eventually resumes, squeak into the final qualification spot for the Europa League next season. That still isn't football's top table, but with strong summer investment, they could contend for the Champions League next term, and becoming the star of an up-and-coming team might appeal to Bale as an adventure. 

Newcastle United

Three months ago, there would have been no chance of this happening whatsoever, but everything changed at Newcastle just a few short weeks ago when it was announced that a multi-million dollar takeover of the club was nearing the point of completion. Almost as soon as that was announced, people started to talk about the possibility of Gareth Bale swapping the white of Real Madrid for the black and white stripes of Newcastle United. This would be part of a changing of the guard at Newcastle, which would also see manager Steve Bruce dismissed from his role and replaced with former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino - a man who has plenty of experience when it comes to competing at the top end of the Premier League table. If the takeover is completed over the summer and Pochettino comes in, expect the Argentine to be backed heavily in the transfer market. Signing Bale would be a major statement about the club’s future. Bale wouldn’t even be the first British player to swap Madrid for Tyneside - Michael Owen did the same thing many years ago. That move didn’t go to plan, though, so perhaps that wouldn’t be the best metric to judge Bale by!

There are other possibilities, of course. Bale has, in the past, agreed on a big-money move to China from Madrid, only to see the club pull the move out from underneath him when they decided they still needed Bale for the season to come. As a thirty-year-old who probably only has one major move left in his future, he might take the opportunity to sample football in another country before he calls it a day. An Italian club might appeal to him, as might a leading German club, or maybe even a stint in France with PSG. All of these things are more likely than the Welshman staying in Spain for another year, though, so if you're a Madrid fan and you're sick of the sight of Bale, you're almost certainly about to get your wish and see him depart!