by Tim Stannard

Bale heads to London to complete double day of dealings with Tottenham as Reguilon also becomes a Mourinho man

For the last time ever, Sports Burst has the chance to rollout the Bale-Out pun. Soon, the headline will be gone, but never forgotten. 

Gareth Bale is leaving Real Madrid. Finally. 

Bale has reportedly travelled to London to sign a loan deal with Tottenham Hotspur. It's the club the Welshman left in 2013 for a seven-year spell at Real Madrid that was mixed with highs - four Champions League titles and two LaLiga crowns - and the lows of being repeatedly ostracized by Zinedine Zidane and stubbornly maintaining a complex man-bun. 

The move ticks three big boxes for all parties involved. Real Madrid has a least part of an extremely high wage bill removed from a strained bank account. Zidane doesn't have to answer any more questions about Bale - aside from Saturday probably. Tottenham and Jose Mourinho bring in a timely and popular reinforcement having lost an opening EPL clash at home to Everton. 

With a twist, Friday could see two Real Madrid players heading to Tottenham with Sergio Reguilon signing also expected to be announced on Friday as a Spurs signing in a $35 million deal. 

Coach Zizou himself will spend a chirpy Friday preparing for Sunday's LaLiga opener for Real Madrid - an absolute humdinger at Real Sociedad that is live on beIN SPORTS from 2PM ET. 

Barca battles Setien and own supporters 

While Real Madrid is an oasis or relative calm and simply getting business done, Barcelona is...more than just a club.

Friday sees the club's officials counting through the 20,687 signatures of club members gathered by an opposition group and handed over on Thursday. Those signatures, if verified as valid, will trigger a vote of no-confidence in Barcelona's current board. 

Any hope of Josep Bartomeu getting through that vote won't have been helped by the fact that one month after Quique Setien was sacked as Barcelona boss, Quique Setien was...sacked. That officially took place on Wednesday according to a statement issued by Setien claiming that no settlement had been made with the club when he was rather informally 'sacked' back in August. 

That means, as reported on Thursday's Sports Burst, that Ronald Koeman will not be able to sit on Barcelona's bench in games until Setien's situation is fixed and the Dutchman is registered with the Spanish Federation as Barca's boss. 

Meanwhile, Luis Suarez looked set to be heading to Juventus on Thursday, having travelled to Italy and back to complete the process of gaining an Italian passport. Except on Friday, it looks like the deal is off with Juve plumping for Roma's Edin Dzeko instead as the replacement for Gonzalo Higuain whose departure from Serie A was officially announced by the Old Lady on Thursday. 

The Sports Burst live show with Gabrielle Amado and Ray Hudson will look ahead to the return of Real Madrid in LaLiga and another fine mess for Barcelona. Just head to our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page and XTRA channel at 12PM ET. 

Lyon looks for Ligue 1 bounce back as Saint Etienne go top 

An extraordinarily topsy-turvy week in Ligue 1 continues on Friday with Lyon taking on Nimes in a clash that is live, live, live on beIN SPORTS from 2:50PM. 

Sunday saw the madness and mayhem of the Le Classique mass brawl and the aftermath. Wednesday saw PSG within seconds of failing to beat lowly Metz. On Thursday, the proud winners of Sunday's Le Classique clash had quite the comedown with Marseille losing at home to Saint-Etienne. 

And it's Saint Etienne which sits at the top of the Ligue 1 standings on Friday with all teams in France having played three games. 

That will be immensely annoying to local rivals, Lyon, whose start to the Ligue 1 season has been sluggish with just four points from nine. Friday is set to be a departure from the club's forward line as well - no, not Memphis Depay - but Bertrand Traore who joins Aston Villa in a $24m deal.