A triumphant Gareth Bales completes a transfer to Real Madrid.  When it comes to Gareth’s international career, one man does not make the team. Even with Gareth Bale Wales are still unlikely to get past the group stages of the World Cup. With a younger Ryan Giggs then possibly.

Update – Chris Coleman, the manager of the Wales team must be smarting over Real Madrid putting the veto on his decision to name Gareth Bale in the team for the World Cup qualifying matches. The final nail in the World Cup coffin.

Home grown talent like Bale is just what Greg Dyke is looking for to achieve his 10 year plan. What an investment for Tottenham? The next transfer window will be exciting time at spurs. After Mr Dyke’s speech, will Tottenham spend some of Bale’s record sale proceeds on nurturing English talent, let’s hope so. The FA’s deadline for returning England to top flight international football, viz, south American teams and more recently France and Spain, is 2022. How long? Likening the national team to a tanker changing course, Mr Dyke admitted it is going to take a long time. Part of the problem is changing the team, namely removing the old guard. So don’t expect England to get to the semi’s in Brazil. As the Premiership has gone global so have most of the players within it, leaving less money for developing an English Gareth Bale.

Exciting times for Tottenham. A top four finish for the 2013/14 Premiership season is a distinct possibility, even if all those new players are getting a test run.

Bringing us to the topic of future wagers. England to win the 2022 World Cup final might seem like a crazy idea. Nick Newlife who wagered 10 years ago that Roger Federrer would win 7 Wimbledon titles by 2017 probably looked nutty as well. At odds of 66/1 it won 100000 + GBP. In a bizarre twist Mr Newlife died in 2009 and left the betting slip in his will to Oxfam.  With the backing of the Executive Chairman of the Football Association a future bet on England to win the 2022 World Cup might not be as crazy as it sounds.