Former Saints boss Glenn Hoddle feels it would be a mistake for Gareth Bale to join Real Madrid this summer - believing the Wales ace might not yet be ready to move abroad.

Madrid are reportedly willing to break the £80million world-record fee they paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 to take ex-Saints left back Bale to the Bernabeu.

Bale is said to be keen to speak to Madrid, although Spurs have insisted the 24-year-old, who signed a new four-year contract at White Hart Lane in June 2012, is not for sale.

Hoddle concedes there's a "price on everyone's head in football" but he feels Bale would be best served staying with Tottenham for now and building on his remarkable 2012/13 campaign which saw him named player of the year by the Professional Footballers' Association and the Football Writers' Association.

One-time Spurs and England boss Hoddle told talkSPORT: "It's a difficult one but if you're talking about the lad himself, I would definitely, if I was advising him, I would say he's not quite ready to go abroad.

"I think he's had a sensational year, for him to pick the reins up in that form would be nigh-on impossible straight away. I don't feel he's quite ready off the pitch to make that move."

Hoddle, who knows what it is like to leave Spurs and move abroad after swapping the north London side for Monaco in 1987, added: "It's one thing setting a standard, it's keeping the standard which is the hardest thing, the consistency.

"My word how consistent he's been, he's been nine out of 10 every game, some of the goals he's scored have been sensational.

"That's what people want to see in football, they pay good money and a lot of money nowadays to go and Real Madrid's fans will be purring at the thought of having possibly him and Ronaldo in the same team. They can go back and challenge the world again.

"When you go abroad the first four, five, six months could be difficult for him to regain that form and if his family are not with him 100 per cent all those things come into it.

"I just sense that maybe he might go for the wrong reasons. If he wants to go just for football reasons I think it might be better in a year's time or maybe two years' time."

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