Wales boss wants Gareth Bale to stay put with Real Madrid

Wales boss Chris Coleman feels Gareth Bale would be best served to remain with Real Madrid rather than pushing for a move back to the Premier League.

The 28-year-old has been strongly linked with a potential exit from the Bernabeu following a frustrating season last term where he managed just 27 appearances.

Manchester United have been identified as the suitable destination for Bale this month, but Coleman insists that Bale should not give up on his Los Blancos career just yet, he said: "I think from our point of view my opinion is that La Liga, the tempo and physicality is completely different to the Premier League. Being selfish, he's better off at Real Madrid. You work all your life to get the top, you don't want to give that up. Where do you go from Real Madrid that's better? There's one or two clubs up there but none better. He was disappointed to miss the Serbia game but there was nothing we could do about that and of course he's won the Champions League again this year."

Earlier this summer, there were suggestions that Real recruit Kylian Mbappe from AS Monaco in order to add more competition for places in the wider department. However, these plans appear to have diminished in recent weeks with manager Zinedine Zidane looking to keep his current squad intact.

Bale has managed over 30 league outings in just one of his last four seasons with Real Madrid, but he will be hoping to enjoy an injury-free campaign ahead of what is an important run of fixtures for the Welsh national side. The Euro 2016 semi-finalists are currently four points adrift of both Serbia and Ireland in their World Cup qualifier group, and they will need to win their final four games in order to stand any chance of making the showpiece event in Russia.