The relationship that Spurs and Madrid have had for the past two years has helped weaken AFC’s long hated neighbor and without intention benefited Arsenal, but it’s not over. Bale’s arrival in the Spanish capital has set off a series of unintended events that may haunt the small club down the road for years to come.

The dressing room at the Bernabeu has long since been divided, those for and against Mourinho, for and against Ronaldo, for and against X player (take your pick). One thing that they have galvanized themselves on is all against Bale, and all against the departure of Özil.

The established internationals and for the most part, world class players, haven’t had as much success on the pitch as they would have liked to this point with the assembly of talent at the club and that’s been down to being so divided off of it but several times during the last few days, players have come out to share their disappointment in seeing a perceived and actual world class talent like Özil leave and seeing a potential talent like Bale come in, and it goes deeper than that.

As told to me, the dressing room resent the weekly wages the unproven player will command during the length of his contract while more established and proven world class players like Ronaldo, Ramos, etc. were all seeking extensions to their contracts with better pay and were all rejected. Özil also fits into that category of world class player that wanted an extension with better pay. Now they have an unproven player with them that is being paid more than their perennial star Ronaldo and themselves and all of them are not too please. Let the fireworks begin.

How does this benefit Arsenal? Florentino Perez has a great admiration for Wenger who he has tried to pry away from Arsenal three times in the last decade. This admiration helped lead him to make a promise that he would not accept any other offers for Özil after problems arose into the separate deals for Higuain and Di Maria. Perez is a man that likes to deal with the familiar; he would rather lose money and maintain an outward appearance of grace than to sully himself, his club and his reputation over money. Levy’s actions on the Bale deal, then his actions on deadline day trying to stop the Özil deal and the subsequent press clippings regarding both has sat badly with Perez I’m told. That admiration for Arsenal and Arsene in particular along with Özil being at the club and the class shown by Arsenal to keep things quiet can and will now lead to similar transfer opportunities coming out of the Bernabeu.

The divide that this deal has caused in both the arrival of Bale and the sale of Özil will cause more departures at Real Madrid. There is a flurry of activity at the Bernabeu even now – as they are dealing with the agents of players who wanted a re-negotiation and extensions of their contracts and those that were not thinking of it before but now feel compelled to do so after realizing the new arrival’s wages. Perez needs a new partner, who is financially sound, has class to match his own and is attractive enough to persuade his disenchanted stars to make a move after they’ve used up their usefulness marketing-wise at the Bernabeu. Lest we forget that appearances there are just as important as on the field results. You can see that with the several overhauls of teams that Madrid has gone through the years and it has always benefited other clubs. With the class shown by Arsenal in this situation and the seemingly new willingness to spend on top talent; Arsenal are now on the inside looking out – at last. Thanks Levy, you did Arsenal a huge favor. Again.

Gooner in Barcelona