By Tim Stannard

1) Bale talks financial turkey over new Real Madrid deal  

Bit of a good news, bad news scenario for Real Madrid on Halloween Monday. Starting off with the happier variety and Gareth Bale and his top-knot were jammed in front of the press to talk about how he intends to spend around $730,000 a week – yes, a week – in a new deal announced on Sunday that is set to keep the Welshman at the Santiago Bernabeu until 2022. More Spanish lessons might be a start with the forward choosing to speak in English.

The big, elephant in the room question that was left unanswered was how Cristiano Ronaldo had taken the news that Bale’s salary is reportedly bigger than his. CR7 is certainly looking a little somber in this casually-taken photo from Sunday evening.

The bad news is that Pepe is in danger of missing el Clasico on December 3rd after Real Madrid medics diagnosed the Portuguese Man of War with a thigh injury. The defender could be out for up to six weeks, and joins Sergio Ramos on the injury sidelines.

2) Bad day for Barca’s memory-challenged Marlon

Oh dear. Barcelona ‘B’ team defender, Marlon Santos, was so excited by his call-up to the first team squad that travelled to face Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday that he missed his passport and then the charter plane, while he returned home to retrieve it. The Brazilian is expected to be travelling with the rest of the world’s riff-raff on another flight later today.

Manchester City will be hoping for a slightly improved performance than a fortnight ago when the English side was trounced 4-0 in the Camp Nou. Another defeat could see the participation of Pep Guardiola’s side in the knock-out rounds in some peril, not something the club’s owners signed up for when appointing the former Barca boss. Catch a full preview of the game on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

3) Bob Bradley looks for first Premier League win

Mother Football is not yet done with the weekend's fixtures. Over in the Premier League and Bob Bradley is looking for his first win at the helm of 'Merica's Swansea City in his third match in charge. Serie A has a couple of stragglers with Udinese hosting Torino and Cagliari taking on Palermo. You can catch both of those clashes live on beIN SPORTS from 2PM ET / 11AM PT. 

Over on our Spanish service, the eternally watchable Valencia are away at the not always ever watchable dogged Deportivo. That game kicks off at 3:45PM ET / 12:45PM PT. Catch all the highlights from every game on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM ET. 

4) Verratti denies Unai rift as Lyon deny Valbuena’s passing

Marco Verratti has ruined everyone’s fun by revealing on Monday that he has not had a fallout with PSG boss Unai Emery. The media world has put two and two together to make 12 after the Italian midfielder was thought to have been in a huff over a mid-match substitution against Marseille last week. But that’s not the case, apparently. "It's gone too far this week and even my agent exaggerated a bit to say that I could leave the club.”

Meanwhile, Lyon, was forced to confirm on Monday that Mathieu Valbuena had not missed the weekend’s match against Toulouse due to the midfielder moving on to another realm.

"Mathieu Valbuena is happily alive and well contrary to what those despicable individuals are spreading on Twitter," said the club.

5) Another high point for Low with Germany

Joachim Low has decided to stick it out for another four years as Germany’s team manager. The 56-year-old has now been in charge of the Mannschaft for a decade and has extended his current deal to 2020 which will take in the next World Cup and European Championships.

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.