Gareth Bale: I never had a problem with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid

Bale’s relationship with Ronaldo has been constantly scrutinised and, most memorably, the Portuguese forward appeared to fume at the Welshman for not passing the ball to him in a match against Espanyol.

But in an exclusive interview with The Times, Bale made it clear that talk of any discord was wide of the mark.

“[Ronaldo] speaks English which helped me when I first came here,” he told Henry Winter of The Times.

“We also have that link from the Premier League. We get on really well.

“He’s very determined. People sometimes seem to take that the wrong way. We haven’t had a problem.

“[On Manchester City in the Champions League semi-finals], City have some great players, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne is in good form.

“They wouldn’t be in the Champions League semi-finals without good players. We know the threat they could pose but we’re ready for it.

“They know we have good players. Hopefully we can cause them more problems than they cause us.”

Why are we even talking about this? Even if they hated each other's guts, it is making no difference to how they play. Not everyone gets on with all their work colleagues - but your colleagues don't have to be your friends, and the pair clearly have a high level of professional respect for each other. That's all anyone can expect from them.