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Gareth Bale does not need one last big payday before hanging up his boots – nine years at Real Madrid, latterly on over £550,000 a week has almost certainly ensured that his bank balance looks pretty healthy.

He does not need the extra adulation from a new set of fans with the love he receives while playing in a Wales shirt seemingly quite enough.

And he would appear to need no personal vindication or for that matter have points to prove towards the end of a career in which he has pretty much won the lot including five Champions League trophies.

What he does need is to stay sharp for another six months until the end of Wales’s World Cup adventure. And with three months of football between now and their opening game on November 22 speculation as to where he might do that has gone into overdrive. His smiling acknowledgement he was ready to postpone his playing retirement “for a little bit” has created a frenzy about where he might rock up next with Cardiff City favourite.

Bluebirds chairman Mehmet Dalman has reportedly flown in to the United Kingdom to lead negotiations with Cardiff hoping the chance to lead a challenge to lift them into the top flight would appeal beyond the end of the World Cup, too. It would mean a big drop in