Richard Buxton: Real’s Galacticos policy is over
With no star signings, Bale can emerge from Ronaldo's shadow and thrive
Nothing lasts forever in the cauldron of impatience that is Real Madrid.
Cristiano Ronaldo may be superhuman but he could never remain immortal; Zinedine Zidane found a winning habit was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain while Florentino Perez has discovered that his cheque book cannot keep pace with what had become a spiralling obsession.
The European champions' fabled Galactico policy appears to be over. An era of acronyms and egotism is finally at an end at the Bernabeu; CR7 has gone and the BBC is no more.
Disassembling a near decade's worth of lavish rebooting under Perez's premiership is hardly an overnight sensation; it became a steady process during Zidane's two years at the helm.
His own resignation, barely three months ago, warned that Real were in need of change.
Los Blancos have responded with statements dousing several high-profile items of speculation this summer.
They have no appetite to fuel a transfer window where Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Eden Hazard have all been linked to the Spanish capital, despite regular engineering from the latter.
Times are very much changing for the market's trailblazers.
Winding down has become the new powering-up when Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Barcelona have all comfortably surpassed Real's previously long-standing world record fee for Ronaldo.
His own departure for Juventus heralded the first time in over 18 years that Real will begin a new La Liga campaign without a Ballon d'Or winner within their ranks.
With it, Gareth Bale can finally emerge from shivering in Ronaldo's spectre.
For both club and country, everything Bale attempted to make his own has been upstaged by Ronaldo; from a world-record transfer fee to his heroics with Wales at Euro 2016.
Even when the former Tottenham Hotspur winger harboured misgivings about his future in the aftermath of a match-winning performance in May's Champions League final, Ronaldo could not resist diverting attention back to him.
A lot has changed since that night in Kiev.
Beyond the Ronaldo factor, Bale also no longer finds himself playing for a manager with whom a working relationship appeared non-existent at worst and highly distant at best.
Appointing Julen Lopetegui as Zidane's successor has been another key step in the Galacticos' great unravelling.
Nurturing exciting young talent, rather than fast-tracking to the finished product, will be a key staple of the deposed Spain coach's ethos - if he is afforded ample time to implement it.
FILLING THE VOID
Filling the void of Ronaldo's 40-plus goals per season haul appears a logical conclusion for Bale, especially when stacked against his own statistics.
A direct hand in 128 of Real's goals during his 147 starts has been largely derived from playing outside his comfort zone.
Perez once fantasised that Real would find a perfect blend of star players like Zidane, and home-grown prospects such as Francisco Pavon.
Ultimately, however, the Galactico brand superseded any honourable intentions behind the imaginatively titled "Zidanes y Pavones".
Between them, Bale and Lopetegui can provide a belated link to their president's original ideology.
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