After 6 years in the Spanish capital, it has been reported that Gareth Bale has decided to familiarise himself with the local language.

The surprise development has come during tense times for the Welshman, with head coach Zidane making no secret of his desire to move Bale on to another club as soon as possible.

And one insider with links to the Bernabeu speculates that this could be the very reason for Bale’s sudden inkling to learn Spanish.

“With Zidane clearly wanting him out and him not wanting to leave I think he’s been trying to send signals telling the head coach he’s not going anywhere. But with the obvious language barrier he’s had a hard time communicating this to Zidane – hence him wanting to learn Spanish”.

But another insider with personal links to the Welshman has a different reasoning.

“He’s just told me this morning that he’s having problems with his Google Translate and that means he can’t go out and about shopping or catching a movie. I told him that if he wants to interact with the locals he’s better off learning the damn language than constantly using Translate”.

On the Touchline reporters tried contacting Bale for a direct comment but were told he was taking the day off golfing.