Exclusive – No truth in ‘overhyped’ Ronaldo/Bale feud, insists Real Madrid assistant

Real Madrid assistant manager Paul Clement has dismissed rumours of an alleged falling out between Los Blancos stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

Football’s most expensive player, Bale, has received criticism from fans and the Spanish media in recent weeks for his apparent tendency to go it alone rather than pass to his team-mates.

The Welshman netted a fine free-kick in Saturday’s 3-0 La Liga victory over Espanyol, but received boos from the Bernabeu faithful in the same game for firing wide when he could have slipped the ball to Ronaldo for a simple tap-in.

After mutterings of a growing feud between the pair, Ronaldo - who was awarded a second successive Ballon d’Or title on Monday - rubbished the reports, saying “things were normal” and insisting Bale is a “key player” for the European champions.

And Clement agrees, telling talkSPORT the stories have simply been overhyped.

“Everything I’ve seen in terms of the relationship between Cristiano and Gareth has been very positive," Real Madrid's number two said in an exclusive interview with Drivetime.

“It’s all just been overhyped.

“They speak to each other on a daily basis in training. Gareth’s Spanish is not so good, though he is learning and getting better, and Cristiano is a big help to him with that.

“There’s only a five-year difference between them but Cristiano has definitely helped Gareth and taken him under his wing to a certain degree, and that’s helped him achieve what he’s achieve so far here at Madrid.

“There’s always going to be that kind of talk when a player doesn’t play a ball or he misses an easy opportunity, people will highlight those things.

“But that’s not what I see, they have a good relationship and they are two fantastic players to have in our team.”

When quizzed about Bale, Ronaldo – in an interview following his World Player of the Year win – told the "intense” Real Madrid supporters to go easy on his team-mate.

"The people will be nice with him and they should be nice. Things with Gaz are normal,” the Portuguese star added.

"What happened on Saturday is in the past, sometimes I make mistakes too so it's part of the business, part of football.

"Madrid fans are always the same, they are very intense, they show what they feel, they aren't liars.

"But they know that Gaz is a very important player for us, a key player.”