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Gareth Bale and Zinedine Zidane have a weird love-hate relationship. A couple of months back, the Welshman seemed one step away from the exit door but ended up staying at the club. The coach then said he would count on his star as he is an important part of the team. So far, that hasn't really been the case.

What did he say?

It's safe to say that the 30-year-old forward was on thin ice the whole summer.

His potential departure seemed like a matter of time when Zidane went so far to suggest a sale would be for the best.

Of course, now we know that the player ended up staying at the Santiago Bernabeu after his failed transfer to Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning in July.

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When that became obvious, Zidane faced the press once more, this time changing his tune and talking of Bale's importance.

Here's what he said in full:

"It looked like he was leaving but now he is here and now I'm going to count on him, just like all the other players that are in the squad. He has a contract, he's an important player and I hope all the players want to make it difficult for me to pick the team."

Still an outcast

Even though the season started quite well for Bale, seeing how he managed to score two goals and assist a further one in the first three games of the new campaign, things returned back to "normal" soon enough.

Since then, he was discarded from the squad completely twice, once in the Champions League and once in La Liga, and has missed a number of other games due to various different reasons like injuries and suspensions.

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That means he only played seven out of 14 games in total for Real Madrid this season.

And now, reports coming from AS last month state that Los Blancos are looking to offload Bale in the near future and that only further suggests he's not really an important player the club can count on moving forward.

The Welshman was pretty upset with his exclusions from the squad earlier in the season and, given all of the circumstances surrounding his position at the club, he might soon depart altogether.

Needless to say, if that happens, the coach's words from a couple of months back will look a bit foolish.

Even if he somehow ends up staying at the Spanish capital, he still looks far from an important player Zidane described during the summer.