Time to give up on any hope that signing Bale was anything other than an opportunity for him to get fit for this summer's Euro's and then hang 'em up. Asked about Bale's lack of minutes, his agent, Jonathan Barnett, said: "He's towards the end of his career. Really, you have to ask Mourinho that. 'What's happened to him?' - he's won more trophies abroad than any British player in history. "He's done very well financially, and he has enough money for the rest of his life. He has a very good lifestyle, so that is what has happened to him." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56101727 We've been ****ed over for Levy's vanity. P.s. Sonny doesn't think that it's a good time to discuss a new contract.... I'll bet he doesn't.
I think it was worth a punt. We didn't sign him permanently and he didn't take up a squad place, being HG and CG. We've wasted some time and money for a few goals and some mediocre performances and we should learn from it. It was a move that was largely welcomed by the fanbase though, so I'm not going to be overly critical about it.
Bale’s still yet to have a proper chance in the team. 248 mins so far in the Prem is less than 3 matches worth. 60 mins here and there in Europa won’t do much if he’s also not getting sufficient minutes in the Prem. Jose’s said “he can’t just give minutes” to players but he’s been happy watching Bergwijn, Lucas and Lamela be turd just because they run about a bit more. Give Bale 5+ straight league starts and I’d almost be certain he’d offer more than the other three combined. Until that happens though it’ll be a disastrous signing because he’ll never get in a rhythm to do much.
I still think the key to unlocking more from Bale is 60,000 fans chanting his name. That was something he lacked almost permanently during his time in Madrid. And as his knob of an agent rightly says, when you've won/earned as much as Bale has, motivation becomes a scarce commodity. He seems to have it for Wales due to national pride, but I doubt he currently has it for us. Only the adoration of the fans can bring that back. Sadly I think he'll be gone before we return to the stadium.
You can see how his attitude has rubbed off on his client. I'd be furious if I was in Bale's position and my agent was making statements like those Barnett has over the years. It's the Raiola effect. They should be seen and not heard, but they want to promote themselves more than they want to do their jobs.
Although I'm pissed at Bale for using us...I blame Levy for this and it's not an isolated incident. It's another Levy deal which wasn't what the manager wanted and needed. We've seen too many of them over the years and we just end up with players that the managers don't use. I'm pretty certain that Aurier and Lucas were a cause of strife between Poch and Levy, as all transfers are the cause of strife when Levy's heavily involved. Everyone knows that I'm no fan of Mourinho...but on this one, he's got clean hands.
Ally Gold and other journos mentioned that in his first number of training sessions Bale was wowing the staff and players, also mentioned that he’d been working with Jack Clarke and Clarke himself was impressing because of it. I think he joined with real intent to do something here but his lack of sufficient game time for a player of his calibre has probably further knocked his confidence and love for the game that Zidane/ Madrid had done in the last couple years. Our current style/ tactics probably doesn’t suit Bale either. Bale isn’t gonna track back and defend for most of the game, he’s a player who wants the ball in final third and then looks to make things happen. It’s why Bergwijn, Lucas, Lamela and even Sissoko ffs have all gotten above Bale in the pecking order on that RW because “they graft” but Jose needs to understand that sometimes you just need that star quality at times, not everyone in the side needs to be a grafter, Berbatov wasn’t, van der Vaart wasn’t, players with their ability shouldn’t be asked to track back and primarily defend for 90% of a game, if you’re holding onto a slender lead it’s a different story but these tactics don’t suit a luxury player and based on the utter dross we’ve been watching for months now, a bit of star quality really could help liven up the place. Persisting with an out of form Bergwijn or mediocre players like Lucas and Lamela or playing Sissoko out of position hasn’t done anything for us so far, time to give Bale a go in my opinion.
He's always been backward in getting 'stuck in' and in recent years he's been 'injured' a lot at Madrid...and fit for Wales. He is so not a Mourinho player at this point. If he was somewhere else, I wouldn't give a crap about any of it and Levy should have given this a big swerve.
Bale doesn't want to play EL but it's Europe so he is putting himself on show for a last contract at a big team.
Guaranteed starting X1. Seven games max. Opposition quality increases, as does TV audience numbers. Saviour if he helps Spurs win the thing while they do not finish PL top 4.
He’s going Munich or Barca Last summer was the time to get him, now he’s on the radar of the big boys
