Villas-Boas expecting Bale to make Premier League return

Gareth Bale's Real Madrid future appears bleak and Andre Villas-Boas would not be surprised to see him return to the Premier League.

Former Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas thinks Gareth Bale returning to the Premier League is the most likely outcome if the forward leaves Real Madrid in this transfer window.

Bale is seemingly surplus to requirements at the Santiago Bernabeu having not featured in any of Madrid's last three games, with returning head coach Zinedine Zidane admitting the Wales international faced an uncertain future.

However, with Bale under contract until 2022 and reportedly on £600,000 a week, moving him on is likely to be a challenge for Los Blancos.

Villas-Boas was in charge of Spurs for Bale's final season before he left for Spain in 2013 and the Portuguese believes Premier League clubs are most likely to give the 29-year-old a way out of Madrid.

"I have no idea what he wants to do," Villas-Boas told Omnisport from the Bilbao International Football Summit.

"He was extremely successful at Real Madrid. He left Tottenham to chase trophies and achieved that immediately, scoring in Champions League finals.

"Of course, at the moment, there's a lot of bad noise surrounding him. A lot of criticism, [there is] probably not a lot of confidence from the coach right now.

"It looks more likely that he's going to leave and you would expect him to go to England now."

Despite playing a major part in Madrid's three successive Champions League triumphs, Bale has battled injuries throughout his time in Spain.

He featured in 33 league games under Villas-Boas in his final season at Spurs - more than any of his campaigns in Madrid - and his old boss admitted Bale had to be managed carefully.

"He always suffered a lot of muscular and back pain, so we gave him a lot of work with the physio to have him 100 per cent for the matches and he always performed for us," Villas-Boas added.

"So, with him, it's reaching that balance, but at a club like Real Madrid you are always under pressure and expectation.

"Real Madrid have access to the best players in the world in every single transfer window so, yes, at the moment, I think Gareth is under pressure and the most likely move for him will be the Premier League but he's a player that can play anywhere in the world."