Negotiations are underway for a settlement of Gareth Bales contract with Real Madrid.

Now that the European Championships are over for Wales, Gareth Bales agent Johnathan Barnett has started to play hardball with the Spanish club Real Madrid.

As previously reported, the Welsh Captain wants to settle his contract with the Spanish giants and return to his beloved Wales.

With the player on an estimated £400,000 per week with 12 months remaining on his contract, the Madrid club wishes to offload the player off their books, whilst the player himself wants to return to Wales.

Now it’s all down to bargaining, and it appears Johnathan Barnett, Bales agent, has fired the first shots.

Barnett has used Sky Sports as his outlet to warn the Real Madrid president the player is prepared to see out the 12 months in return for collecting at least 19 million pounds for the remainder of his contract.

It’s a tactic often used by agents to feed the press info in an attempt to warn them.

“It’s a warning shot to Real Madrid, the scenario being they could be left with an unwanted player on the books for another 12 months costing them around 19 million pounds – the settlement negotiations have clearly started,” said the source in Madrid.

It comes after Barnett released a statement to Sky Sports news who fed out:

“Gareth Bale will return to Real Madrid for the final year of his £480,000-per-week contract.

Bales says he wants to finish his final season at Real Madrid and is relishing the challenge, Bale has also been told he is wanted back.

A number of Premier Clubs have shown interest in the Welsh international, but were only willing to pay 50% of Bales wages.

Gareth Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett has confirmed Bale won’t play at Tottenham for a second season, with the Welshman set to see out the year he has left on his contract at Real Madrid confirmed Barnett.”

The Madrid sources, though, retaliated, saying: “It’s a clear threat to the Club to pay up and settle or be lumped with an uninterested player on the books and having to pay out over £19 million for the privilege.”

“It’s a tactic often used by agents”, he confirmed.

“Of course, Madrid do need to be careful because if they don’t get him off the books, they could be paying a hefty price for a player to train with the ‘Bomb Squad’ for 12 months.

Over the weekend, odds were slashed by bookmakers from 33/1 to just 5/4 that Bale was set to sign for his hometown club Cardiff City, who are yet to quash the speculation around South Wales.

Bale himself recently started where he plays next season would ‘shock the football world and cause chaos.’

No doubt the negotiations will continue as Barnett ups the stakes to get the player out of the club with a contract settlement.