Real Madrid are preparing an offer of £70 million plus Gareth Bale for Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, according to Sky Sports. 

Los Blancos attempted to sign the England international in the summer but were met with defiance from the English champions.

Florentino Perez now sees a deal as a way of killing two birds with one stone as Bale shows no sign of becoming more popular in the Spanish capital.

The Welshman left the Real Betis game 10 minutes early and while that is not against club rules, there are reports in Spain that it did not do much to endear him to his teammates. 

Bale is already known as 'the golfer' because of his preference for playing 18 holes over spending time with the other players. 

Sterling, on the other hand, with 12 goals for City already in all competitions this season, is seen as a perfect fit at the Bernabeu. 

His transformation under Pep Guardiola over the past few years has been nothing short of remarkable. 

On the international stage, the former Liverpool man has eight goals in six European Championship qualifiers for England this term.

Perez has tried to limit Zinedine Zidane to one Galactico a year - with Eden Hazard taking the title in the summer when he signed from Chelsea. 

However, his mind may have been changed by a string of poor results. 

Despite Barcelona's own poor start, Real are still only second and failed to score once again in the weekend's stalemate at home. 

Cristiano Ronaldo's exit in 2018 is the obvious cause of their problems up front - could Sterling be the answer?