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Mid-Day Ticker: Bale gets new Spurs deal, Mandzukic to Bayern Munich & more

Bale (Getty Images)

Gareth Bale won’t be going anywhere this summer.

The coveted winger signed a new four-year deal with Tottenham on Wednesday, extending his stay in London and putting an end to speculation that he’d be bolting for some of the world’s biggest teams.

Just 22, Bale has established himself as one of the Premier League’s top talents and had been attracting interest from a wide array of teams, including giants Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester City. The left winger won the PFA Player of the Year award in 2011 and scored a career-high 13 goals in all competitions last season.

“I love the club and the fans and I want to play my part in trying to get us back into the Champions League – where we belong,” Bale said in a Tottenham statement. “We’ve a good, young squad and we need to work together to get back on the biggest stage again.”

Here are a few more stories to keep your day going:

MANDZUKIC MOVES TO BAYERN MUNICH

Croatia’s Euro 2012 hero Mario Mandzukic is on the move to Bayern Munich.

Mandzukic sealed a reported €12 million move from Wolfsburg and signed a four-year deal with the UEFA Champions League runners-up on Wednesday.

Mandzukic scored three goals in the group stage for Croatia on the heels of a 12-goal season with Wolfsburg. He spent two seasons with the Bundesliga club after moving there from Croatian power Dinamo Zagreb in 2010. He’ll replace the ousted Ivica Olic on the Bayern Munich forward depth chart, and he’ll team with German international Mario Gomez to help lead the Munich attack.

RANGERS PLAYERS DETERMINE FUTURE

Rangers players have been reduced to two camps: Those committing their future to the troubled club, and those proclaiming their wish to be freed.

With the team likely reduced to the third tier of Scottish soccer — pending a Scottish Premier League vote next month — and the club starting from scratch after financial problems forced the club into liquidation, only three first-team players have pledged themselves to the team — Lee McCulloch, Lee Wallace and Kyle Hutton.

Steven Naismith, Alan McGregor, Kyle Lafferty, Jamie Ness, Steven Whittaker, Sone Aluko, Rhys McCabe and captain Steven Davis have all made it known that they’ll be playing elsewhere this coming season. The fates of Americans Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Alejandro Bedoya have not yet been determined.

CORLUKA REUNITES WITH BILIC IN RUSSIA

While Bale is staying at Tottenham, defender Vedran Corluka is not. The 26-year-old Croatian international signed a three-year deal with Lokomotiv Moscow in Russia, where he’ll play for Slaven Bilic — the Croatian national team coach who signed a three-year deal at Lokomotiv Moscow last month.

Corluka did not feature much for Tottenham last season, spending the last half of it on loan with Bayer Leverkusen. Lokomotiv Moscow is not involved in any European competitions this season.

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Surprised to see Bale stay put? Think Mandzukic is a great signing for Bayern Munich? Do you think Rangers will have good enough players to win promotion in Scotland? Surprised to see Corluka move to Russia?

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