Ancelotti shuts the stable door after the horse has bolted

Having spoken out about Gareth Bale Carlo Ancelotti refuses to speak out about Gareth Bale!

You could take the view he is an intelligent man and knows exactly what he is doing or you could take the view he didn't know what he was doing, on a salary of millions of pounds a year, has realised his mistake and doesn't want to repeat it.

"I won't speak about Bale," said Ancelotti.

"I have already angered [Villas-Boas] and I don't want to anger another coach. I didn't say anything in particular and I prefer not to talk about this."

Plenty of supporters are clinging desperately to ITK that says we have not received a bid for Bale, but a verbal bid is not classed as an official bid so when clubs say no bid has been received technically they are right, but it doesn't mean that no verbal offer has been made.

The world and his wife knew we had bid for Soldado but technically we hadn't bid to start with, it was all verbal. Questions, private chats, verbal offers, negotiations, which officially are not negotiations, (Baldini/Valencia) happen all the time.

Let's be under no illusion, Real Madrid have made an offer for Bale, just maybe not a bid, although Ancelotti calls it a bid!