Little did Real Madrid know they’d signed Cristiano Ronaldo’s replacement long before he decided to leave. But they had the perfect man. It was finally time for Gareth Bale to step out of the shadows and become the attraction.

There was no reason to indulge in the escalating auction that’s become the transfer market after Ronaldo’s departure. Bale was raring to go. Playing time had been so difficult to earn in his first five years at the Santiago Bernabeu – both injuries and a star-studded squad conspired against him – and his future was never settled. No number of big goals, not even three in European finals, could guarantee a consistent run in the side.

After winning a fourth Champions League in five years, Bale let his frustrations – which he had harnessed so well – seep through. “I need to be playing week in, week out and that hasn’t happened this season for one reason or another,” he said in May, almost challenging the hierarchy to do the right thing.

He’s finally earned the respect he deserves now that Ronaldo’s gone.

Bale’s playing some of his best football since joining the club in 2013, scoring eight goals in his last eight La Liga matches, and then again Wednesday in the Champions League. Karim Benzema is now the one teaming up with Bale on the right, and Luka Modric is finding the Welshman with more regularity.

There’s an organic chemistry here that would take months, even years, to establish with any other summer signing. Bale has the directness to punish opponents on the counter and the tactical awareness to stay wide and stretch defenders.

Julen Lopetegui praised Bale’s attitude and professionalism in August, two things no one could ever hold against him, especially after all the benchings and waiting games. The decision was made early in the post-Ronaldo era to make Bale the standard-bearer of this new-look Madrid.

“We have player who is a super professional player in all aspects, who is training with the motivation of a youth player and who is helping us enormously,” Lopetegui told Marca.

Bale has answered in kind.

He created five chances in the first half of Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Roma, and made no mistake with his effort on the break in the second. He was efficient whenever he had the ball, popping up on both flanks to help out and deliver balls into the area.

There was never any question Bale could perform at a high level, but whether he would ever get his chance was a real and valid concern. Injuries had played a part in all the upheaval – Marca estimated last November that Bale had missed one in three matches with various ankle and muscular problems – but some of the omissions were unrelated to fitness. ESPN and Guardian correspondent Sid Lowe categorized Bale’s relationship with Zidane as “virtually non-existent,” which would help explain why he was held out of the squad even when he was healthy.

Communicating with Lopetegui is much easier, not least because he can converse with Bale in English. The most important thing is that an understanding is growing. Lopetegui knows full-well Bale is the most talented player in his squad and he’s using him as such.

That trust has liberated the 29-year-old and encouraged him to do more. Measured per 90 minutes, Bale’s increased his shooting volume by 15 percent compared to last season. He clearly feels more empowered in the most dangerous situations – and that’s a good thing for Los Blancos.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady felt trapped in the offseason and was not sure he wanted to play anymore for the only NFL coach he has ever had, Bill Belichick, according to a new book on Belichick’s life.

“If you’re married 18 years to a grouchy person who gets under your skin and never compliments you, after a while you want to divorce him,” a source with knowledge of the Brady-Belichick relationship told ESPN’s Ian O’Connor, author of “Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time,” after the 2017 season.

“Tom knows Bill is the best coach in the league, but he’s had enough of him. If Tom could, I think he would divorce him.”

Based on interviews with 350 people (Belichick did not cooperate), the book, due out Sept. 25, reports Brady was so upset with his coach that he still wasn’t certain in late March if he would return to the Patriots. “But in the end, even if he wanted to, Brady could not walk away from the game, and he could not ask for a trade,” O’Connor wrote. “The moment Belichick moved [Jimmy] Garoppolo to San Francisco, and banked on Brady’s oft-stated desire to play at least into his mid-forties, was the moment Brady was virtually locked into suiting up next season and beyond. Had he retired or requested a trade, he would have risked turning an adoring New England public into an angry mob.”

ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and several Boston outlets had reported on the escalating tension between Brady and Belichick during last season, much of it revolving around the coach’s decision to reduce the team access that had been granted to Alex Guerrero, Brady’s business partner and fitness coach. Belichick was no longer giving his quarterback the most-favored-nation status he’d enjoyed in the past. New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman recalled in the book that Belichick told him years earlier about a disagreement Brady had with a Patriots strength coach over equipment. “Belichick said, ‘If Tom Brady wants it, Tom Brady gets it,'” Cashman said. “If you get a player at that level, you get him what he needs, even if the strength coach says otherwise.”

Brady was the league’s only starting quarterback who didn’t attend voluntary OTAs in the spring; he was also angered by the Malcolm Butler benching in the Super Bowl LII loss to Philadelphia. Asked by broadcaster Jim Gray in late April if he felt appreciated by Belichick and owner Robert Kraft (the quarterback maintains a close relationship with Kraft), Brady responded, “I plead the Fifth! … Man, that is a tough question.”

The transactional relationship between the five-time champs, Brady and Belichick, had been reduced to a staredown that didn’t surprise those in the quarterback’s camp. According to the book, Brady’s family long felt Belichick would push out his longtime franchise player before he was ready to retire. Brady’s sister Nancy is quoted telling people that her brother believed “Belichick will definitely do to him someday what the Colts did to Peyton [Manning].”

Brady started worrying for his job almost immediately after Belichick cited his age and contract status — and the coach’s own desire to be “early rather than late at that position” — when the Patriots drafted Garoppolo in 2014. One New England assistant said the general feeling among staff members around that time wasn’t that Belichick’s system could make Super Bowl quarterbacks out of all 32 NFL starters. “But if you gave us any of the top 15, we could do it,” the assistant said. “I don’t think the coaches view Tom as special as everyone else in football does. Mr. Kraft thinks Tom is the greatest gift ever, but the coaches don’t.”

Other notable material in the book includes:

Deflategate

• In the early days of the case, Belichick was among the Patriots officials who had “serious doubts” about Brady’s claim he had no involvement in the potential deflation of footballs used in the January 2015 AFC Championship Game victory over the Colts.

• One person close to Brady said his entire family was “miffed” at Belichick for telling reporters to ask the quarterback about his preferences on game balls, and “very miffed” at Kraft for reluctantly announcing in 2015 that he wouldn’t fight Brady’s four-game ban. Of the notion Belichick had initially dumped Deflategate in his quarterback’s lap, one close friend of Brady’s said, “I thought Bill handled it terribly, especially when it involved a guy who’d done everything to help your career as a coach, and you hung him out to dry.”

• Brady told friends that his weak answer to the press conference question about whether he was a cheater — “I don’t believe so” — didn’t betray a consciousness of Deflategate guilt, but rather thoughts of the earlier Spygate conviction and his belief that at least some of the suspicions over the years about alleged Patriots black-ops tactics were likely true.

Spygate

• During the Patriots-Jets season opener in 2007, after a Patriots staffer had his camera confiscated for illegally filming Jets coaches from the sideline, three law enforcement officers refereed a heated debate in a Giants Stadium office over control of the camera and tape. FBI agent Bob Bukowski and longtime New Jersey state troopers and Meadowlands security officials Jim Crann and Pat Aramini, who had worked undercover to infiltrate the Genovese crime family, listened as Patriots security chief Mark Briggs and two Jets officials made what Crann called “cross allegations” of wrongdoing. Crann said Briggs kept accusing the Meadowlands officers of stealing New England’s camera. Said Bukowski of the Patriots and the Spygate tape: “They knew what was on it, and they wanted it back. They were trying any reason, but there was no way.”

• Steve Belichick was ahead of his time on race relations. While serving in the Navy during World War II, Belichick’s father was the only white man who didn’t walk out of the officers’ club on Okinawa when one of the Navy’s first black officers, Samuel Barnes, walked in. Belichick instead befriended Barnes, who often faced racism during his service. Barnes’ daughter Olga likened their friendship to the cross-racial bond between former Chicago Bears running backs Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo depicted in the 1971 film “Brian’s Song.”

Over the past few months, Daniel Sturridge has taken every opportunity that’s fallen his way. He did it in preseason, turning heads while his more popular teammates recovered from the World Cup, and he did it Tuesday with a rare appearance in the Champions League.

It was his first Champions League start in 2,379 days, and he made it count with a fine header against Paris Saint-Germain. He wasn’t the most active player on the pitch, but he didn’t have to be. Sturridge found himself in dangerous positions, stretched the lines, and kept PSG’s defenders on their toes. He was the reference point for Liverpool’s attack.

Jurgen Klopp defined a role for Sturridge in the summer when it was largely assumed the 28-year-old would leave the club for good. The manager resisted several calls to sell the striker, instead calling him an “outstanding” player who simply needs to stay fit.

It was a curious pet project to undertake. For a manager who demands pressing and maximum physical exertion, Klopp took a flexible and compassionate approach to Sturridge, allowing him to carry out his own specially-tailored training regimen. Klopp didn’t expect him to be the most physical or athletic player, nor would it be possible after so many years on the treatment table. Sturridge suffered virtually every injury a player can possibly have, missing a reported 567 days of action since January 2013.

“Does he have to play 50-something games? No,” Klopp said in July, according to BBC Sport’s Simon Stone. “But hopefully he will play a few really good ones. That is the plan.”

Sturridge ended up scoring six goals in nine preseason appearances, and Klopp’s bet was further vindicated Tuesday. Sturridge was forced into the lineup following an eye injury to Roberto Firmino and constantly tested PSG’s backline. He could’ve scored a second goal with a little more match sharpness, but his effort was enough to earn a standing ovation from Anfield in the 70th minute.

Although he seems like an odd fit – more of a poacher in an otherwise fast-paced, fluid system – Sturridge could become an important Plan B for Liverpool this season. He can offer a more direct route to goal when matches become chess games and force defenders to stay back. There’s no way Sturridge will unseat Roberto Firmino in the club’s starting XI, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have an impact. Sturridge can get on the end of crosses, just as he did Tuesday when Andy Robertson delivered one of his many delectable balls.

“Daniel played a super game,” Klopp told BT Sport’s Des Kelly. “I told him before the game I have never seen him as fit as he is in the moment. He used that fitness. He was all over the park. He helped left and right, he was in the box when he was needed.”

There have been times when Liverpool struggled to break down banks of four, and when that happens again, Sturridge has the skills to find a way through. He doesn’t have to press and drop deep – even though that’s something he’s happy to do – but arrive in the penalty area when it counts. There’s value in his simplicity.

Sturridge shouldn’t feel too perturbed about the diminished role. If anything, it’s provided the parameters to ensure he stays in shape. Considering the Reds are a threat in multiple competitions, Klopp has an obligation to rotate his players, and Sturridge is an important reinforcement to have. Klopp doesn’t really want anyone making upwards of 50 appearances this season, and a player like Sturridge will mitigate the workload.

He could’ve spent the final 12 months of his Liverpool contract on loan, out of mind and out of the limelight, but Klopp made sure Sturridge wouldn’t again slip into obscurity. So far, he’s responded in kind.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Kevin Durant, your spot on the next championship-caliber team is waiting.

Welcome to Los Angeles.

No, not the Lakers.

We’re talking about the Rams.

On Monday, a day after Durant expressed admiration in an Instagram Stories video for defensive tackle Aaron Donald and a desire to join the Los Angeles Rams, coach Sean McVay said he certainly had a role in mind for the 6-foot-9, 240-pound two-time NBA champion.

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  Pro Bowl kicker Greg Zuerlein suffered a groin injury during pregame warm-ups Sunday and was not available to kick in a 34-0 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

• Todd Gurley ran for three touchdowns, Jared Goff threw for 354 yards and a touchdown and the Los Angeles Rams dominated the Arizona Cardinals 34-0 on Sunday.