Is Gareth Bale edging towards the Real Madrid exit door?

Given their disappointing form in La Liga this season, the recent Champions League games against PSG were the most important games of the campaign for 'Los Blancos'.

Perhaps then it is telling that Bale only played 36 minutes across the two legs. The Welsh international has often seen his time at the Bernabeu disrupted through injury, but there have been no such concerns as late, he has merely slipped down the pecking order.

The attacking trio of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo appears to have been all but retired, with genuine wingers being preferred by Zinedine Zidane of late.

Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez have leapt above Bale in the first-team reckoning in recent weeks and it was significant that with the game against PSG at the Bernabeu tied at 1-1, it was Asensio and not Bale that Zidane turned to in an attempt to find a winner, with the youngster repaying the faith shown in him in spades by creating two goals.

Put simply, Bale's position is as desperate as it has been during his five seasons in Madrid. Previously he had been a fixture in the team when fit, but that is no longer the case.

During his Real Madrid career, Bale has missed 99 of a possible 179 games due to injury, some 36%, though in the past three seasons that figure has been nearer 45%.

Due to dropping in an out of the team, Bale has failed to truly establish himself and despite Zidane's repeated insistence that he has faith in the Welshman, that seems hard to believe now.

That's not to say that things have been all bad for Bale at the Bernabeu, he has of course won three of the last four Champions League titles, scoring an all-important goal in the 2014 final against Atletico Madrid as well as a brilliant strike to defeat Barcelona just weeks earlier in the final of the Copa del Rey.

However, with Bale no longer being an undisputed starter and with significant Premier League interes in his services, it makes sense for Real to cash in, a fact that will not be lost on the club's hierarchy.