Gareth Bale has nailed his South Wales derby colours to the mast by pleading with Cardiff City boss Steve Morison to make sure his side beats Swansea City this weekend.
Cardiff-born Bale has made many references to his hometown team in recent years, indeed last year while at Tottenham he had a back-and-forth with Joe Rodon over the Bluebirds' rivalry with Swansea. And his latest comments about the Bluebirds will only serve to endear Cardiff fans to him further. There have been speculative links with Cardiff over the last few weeks - you can read more about that here - given the player's Real Madrid contract ends this summer, however Morison branded a potential transfer a "pipe dream" until he is told a move for the 32-year-old is even remotely possible.
"Until someone rings me and actually says that is an option - it’s not something I will worry about," Morison said when asked about a potential move for Bale in the summer.
READ MORE: Gareth Bale transfer update issued by his agent
"Until someone rings me and says Gareth Bale wants to join Cardiff then it’s an absolute pipe dream - nothing to worry about. Otherwise you're going to get caught up in something that could be absolute nonsense.
"I saw him every day he was here in Wales camp, I said 'hello' to him every day, all he said to me was ‘Make sure you beat Swansea!’, that's the only comment he made to me. Outside of that there’s been no conversation about that. I'm not someone who is going to get caught up in something that is – at the minute – a fantasy."
Adding more context to the derby chat with Bale, Morison said: "The actual conversation was, 'You're doing all right, aren't you?', 'Yeah, I'm doing all right,' then he said, 'Make sure you beat them, I want to hammer Connor [Roberts]!
"I'm sure if a Barcelona player was walking through there he would have said the same thing."
The Bluebirds host Swansea at Cardiff City Stadium at 3pm on Saturday.
