Gareth Bale's car park love with Cristiano Ronaldo hides the truth about the Real pecking order at the Bernabéu Zlatan's vanity, apart from being publishing gold, does point to a complex truth about transfers on this scale, especially to Real Madrid. Politics can eat talent for breakfast. The very existence of the Ronaldo-Bale handshake shot tells a story. It was a club production, designed to send out many messages. First: we now own the world's two most expensive footballers. Second: there will be no rivalry, jealousy or duplication in their relationship, on or off the field. Third: Ronaldo is still cooler than Bale (that meaning was unintended). Fourth: arriving at Real Madrid on day one must be utterly terrifying, especially if you cost more than any footballer on the planet (also unintended). The two move to shake hands, but then instinct prompts them to go for the warmer, matier, hand-clasp, which stops short of a hug, which would have felt weird and contrived. "It was amazing," Bale said of Ronaldo the following day. He's a nice guy. He made me feel welcome just like everybody else did. The first Welshman to play for Real Madrid has already taken one title off his Portuguese accomplice: that of world's costliest player, a label Ronaldo was probably reluctant to surrender. If competitive tension is good at work, we can expect to see all his peacock feathers in the next few weeks. The closer we shuffle to Saturday's game at Villarreal, where Bale is expected to play some part at El Madrigal, the more reasons there are to wonder about that dynamic out on the pitch. A couple of years ago in an interview with Bale I asked him whether he was going to develop along Cristiano Ronaldo lines: through the middle, as a central striker, off a long run-up. His eyes lit up and he gave me the answer I had hoped for. Yes, his increasing forays in from the wing for Spurs were inspired in part by Ronaldo, which raises the question now: have Real bought a Welsh Xerox of the man known as CR7? In fact: are CR7 and GB11 (Bale has been given the No 11 jersey) the same player with different accents? Ronaldo is El Gran Señor of this Madrid side. At times he has carried the whole circus since arriving from Manchester United for £80 million in 2009, scoring 176 times in 162 appearances, and establishing a riveting personal duel with Messi which Bale will do well to extend to a triangular arrangement. Unless there is some secret agenda to sell Ronaldo next year, it hardly seems realistic to expect Bale to usurp the senior Galactico who emerged on Wednesday to give him car park love. The best card in Bale's pack (aside from his own ability) is Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, a master at blending superstars while placating megalomaniac owners. But still the doubt persists. Both men are fond are fond of starting in wide positions and slicing in. Both shoot from outside the box. Both are counter-attackers. Each is blessed with speed. You can bet this week's wages that Ronaldo will not stand up in a team meeting and tell the Real midfielders: "From now on you must divide your forward passes 50-50 between me and young Gareth here. Share and share alike. It all hangs on Ronaldo's willingness to compromise and Bale's ability to find the correct balance between his right to declare his own talent and the needs of the team in a year when Real will expect to win their 10th European Cup - the vaunted "decima." "I've learnt how to say it," Bale says, which is a start. But his would not be the first hands on that trophy. Powell held boxing together Dean Powell, the matchmaker, trainer and raconteur who died under a train aged 47 at London's New Cross Gate on Wednesday, was one of those infectiously enthusiastic characters who keep boxing going. A former cornerman to Lennox Lewis, Joe Calzaghe and Naseem Hamed, Powell radiated boyish excitement in all he did. He was one of those people who hold a sport together and was always intent on helping others, his great friend Alan Hudson among them. To see his life reduced to an initial bulletin about delays on the line out of Victoria station is devastating for all those who knew and liked him. Twitter's pinball machine is the problem Gary Lineker was busy justifying his tweets from the Ukraine-England World Cup qualifier on a day when his country plummeted to 17th in the Fifa world rankings and the Football Association met the Premier League to discuss the way ahead for the game in this country. That sentence tells you there is a problem not of Lineker's making, and while managers might be less receptive to criticism from star players who chose not to go into coaching the former England striker's views cannot be dismissed as trash talk. Part of the problem is the medium. Twitter is a pinball machine of easy opinions. This team are "rubbish." That manager is "useless." But in the context of a drab 0-0 draw in Kiev, Lineker's description of England's passing as "awful" suddenly became a news missile aimed at Hodgson's pride. Twitter is not the place to have the debate, entertaining though it may be. Greg Dyke's FA commission needs to be a national effort, with the great players of the past involved, seriously, academically. The inquiry has to reach all corners to collect hard evidence and not just opinions. It cannot be done in 140 characters.