Would the sale of Gareth Bale be a bad thing for Arsenal?

This evening Real Madrid have put in a record £85m bid for Gareth Bale. That fee is astronomical to say the least, especially for a player who has only looked top class for about 5 months. He bailed (no pun intended) Tottenham out a lot of times last season, basically winning games and points single-handedly for Spurs.

But is he really worth £85m? Of course not. He hasn't done nearly enough to merit that sort of fee. Tottenham would have to be mad not to accept it. I know it doesn't send the greatest of signals out to sell your best player but everyone has their price and think what Tottenham could do with that money.

They aren't in the Champions League so many would say they'd struggle to attract really good players, but I think that's a bit of a myth to be honest. Tottenham were in the Europa League last season and managed to get Verthongen and Dembele, this season they are in the same situation and have managed to attract a Brazil international team regular in Paulinho. They also seem to have caught the interest of high scoring Spanish striker Roberto Soldado. Liverpool have managed to attract Luis Suarez, Everton Kevin Mirallas and even Aston Villa with Christian Benteke.

We see every year new players plucked out of nowhere through good scouting systems- like Mirallas, Benteke, Michu and Koscielny. Tottenham could make those sort of buys and get in the likes of Roberto Soldado. They've still got the pull factors of being based in London, being in what is still largely renowned as the best league in the world and are at least in Europe and have got very tempting financial capabilities. So they still have the ability to attract very good players.

So I'd rather see Tottenham keep Bale and not have a huge war chest of dosh lying around to spend on improving the squad as a whole. Tottenham could easily get players in to replace the goals and chances Bale scored and created for them (he didn't get many assists last season- 4). And not only that, but have the license to go out and improve other areas of their team.

I'll be scared if Bale goes. Especially as we're just sitting on our huge war chest of money. So yes, Tottenham selling Bale would be a bad thing for Arsenal, provided Tottenham managed to get players of quality in after selling Bale.