Unbelievable..... http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/sport/10708692.Bale_draws_criticism_from_Spanish_media/ "Gareth Bale is being criticised by the Spanish media who are already starting to question whether the former Tottenham winger is worth the £86m Real Madrid paid for him. Bale scored on his debut against Villareal but has not started the three games since due to injury. The 24-year-old came on as a substitute in a victory over Galatasaray and also featured off the bench against Atletico Madrid on Saturday but was unable to prevent his team losing 1-0. Marca, the publication that spent most of the summer leading the campaign to sign Bale, has now questioned whether buying Bale and selling Mesut Ozil was the right decision. Assistant editor Santiago Segurola writes: "The sale of Ozil is an historic error. Real Madrid has got rid of its second best player. He's a 24-year-old player who brought out the best in everyone around him, especially Cristiano Ronaldo." He continued: "I might be wrong, because Gareth Bale has joined late and has barely had a pre-season, but he seems to be a one-dimensional player, who is not so involved in the dynamic side of the game." Bale's underwhelming display against Atletico was heavily criticised by Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo. Jouralist Jesus Galindo wrote: "The man who cost just ⬠101 million contributed nothing to the team in its debut in the derby. "He showed desire, but lacked speed, one of his main features, and did not look comfortable on the right wing, where he had been placed by Carlo Ancelotti. His attacking edge was limited to a left-foot shot from the edge of the area stopped by Courtois. "Besides that drew applause from the stands when they saw him on the field, otherwise Bale debut at the Bernabeu went virtually unnoticed . The 101 million euros that Florentino Perez invested his signing , were not reflected in his game. "Although it is too early to make any assessment of Bale, on Saturday, to the disappointment of the fans to see the poor image provided by your computer, some doubt the Welshman and whether the investment is worth it."" It would seem as though they didn't really know what they were buying, if they thought he would be creative in the middle or on the right. Stick him on the left if you want a winger though. Who would have thought selling the best assister in Europe would come back to bite them in the bum.......
Gotta love Marca. Spend all summer tapping him up and now they're the first to criticise. I always said selling Ozil - regardless of Bale's signing - was mad. The guy is a genius at finding players. Arsenal are currently finding that out.
Never mind the fact he was only played for one half, was returning from injury, still settling in to a new country and making his home debut..... WTF was this guy not scorring hat-tricks!!! It did have me thinking.... if we were to buy him back Robbie Keane style.....how much would be acceptable? For me with the team we have now.... 40m We could put him straight in to the side on the left and be dangerous on the counter again, as well as keeping the ball.
If the "Bale curse" continues for more than 8 games I would fully expect Bale to be hounded out of Spain by an angry mob.
What a bunch of idiots. For a paper that spends a lot of it's time trying to tap up targets for the club they're always backing they aren't half undermining both Bale and Real with this. The funny thing is that Bale does spend a lot of time in the peripheries of games, they're right, but we could've told them that at the start of the summer. What makes Bale special is that he's the kind of player that can create something out of nothing, whether he's playing well or badly, whether he's seeing a lot of the ball or not, whether he's in the box or his own half. It's no surprise that he hasn't hit the ground running in his 3 short appearances, he's in a different league, with a different team, playing a (slightly) different role and hasn't had a preseason. Rustiness is a big problem for him at the moment. By the end of last season it looked like he could score from 20 yards with his eyes blindfolded but that's after 6 months of playing regularly. Bale's hardly kicked a ball in the last 4/5 months. They might think selling Ozil was a huge mistake but from what I've seen it's not a lack of quality attacking options that's causing them problems, it's that they're picking an unbalanced team. The Villareal game was bizarre, apart from their centrebacks everyone wanted to bomb forward and when they lost the ball not enough of them were working hard enough to get it back, once the ball entered their half it was pretty much up to the centre backs as a couple of players looked to trackback against the harder working Villarreal who were able to better attack and defend as a team.
To be fair, if Spurs spent £86m on a single player, and he has performed the same way Bale has, regardless of injury, I would be up in arms too. Unfortunately, such a high value does equate to a high expectation, and on that level, Bale has under performed to his price tag. Just think Spurs spent £26m on Soldado, and some fans are questioning him as he hasn't been banging in the goals in the PL. How do you think we would be reacting if Spurs bought him for £86m!?
To be fair, he has no goals from open play in 6 games (if this was Ade or Defoe people would be right on his back) I actually think Soldado is getting a bit of a let off to be honest! However, Bale has actually scored and rescued a point for them, and they arn't playing him at either LB, LW or in the middle which is where he did most of his better playing for us. If it means Madrid (or anyone else that wants to tap our players up) think twice before nicking our players then all the better.
Got a point there mate. I wouldn't say I'm overly disappointed with Soldado but I have expected more goals. There's been cases of where keepers have pulled off a few good saves which is true to an extent, Marshall was in superb form but then we've paid a lot of money for a player that should be scoring, regardless of the form of the keeper. We're only 6 league games in so I'm not panicking but like you say, the bigger the value of a player the more you expect. Gotta be honest and say I'm finding it strange with the benching of Lamela too, very rarely does a team break it's transfer record to only then "ease the player" in, especially when this player cost £30m. I know he's young and will need time to adapt but he needs time on the pitch to do so, he's got about a combined total of 30 mins of league time and 2 starts in cups against inferior opposition to what we'd usually face in league games. Not bringing him on against Chelsea was also a bit annoying for me, as a fan you want to see your new signings, especially ones as big as Lamela.
Well, I think we can confidently predict that Real will not be selling Arsenal any more of their players. I know that some of the more deluded Gooners were expecting to pick up the likes of Benzema in the January window. Fat chance of that, now.
When he did that for us, we were over the moon as we pretty much had no one else who could do it, and therefore appreciated it. Unfortunately for Bale, RM have an abundance of quality players who can change games, so it's likely they aren't going to get quite so excited over it. - They expect it as they are a) used to it, and b) have just paid a lot of money for him!
Bale wins you games, he doesn't change them. I agree Madrid have got plenty of quality players who can change the path of a match, Bale doesn't do that though, he just scors out of nothing. Ronaldo's the only other one that can do that for them.
Its going to be a struggle initially for Bale, as we all know he was the main man here, last season the team was basically set up to win the ball, release the ball to Bale and then he would do something special. At Madrid, this won't happen, and likley to never happen as they have too many stars and Ronaldo is the main man, so Bale will need to find his way into the team. Yet look at his career so far. Moved from saints to spurs at a young age: success Said to be a jinx but proves to be a success started off as an attacking full back ...success moved to Left wing... success Moved to forward... success Also last season, for the beginning of the season, Bale was largely off form, he always takes a wee while to adapt to a new position, even in a league he is used to performing in, so why would playing for the biggest club in the world, as a club record signing AND dealing with the pressure of moving be any different? If Bale fails, it won't be because he doesn't have the ability, it will be because he isn't allowed the chance to settle into a new position, but I expect once he does, he will be prove to be a success.
Its going to be a struggle initially for Bale, as we all know he was the main man here, last season the team was basically set up to win the ball, release the ball to Bale and then he would do something special. At Madrid, this won't happen, and likley to never happen as they have too many stars and Ronaldo is the main man, so Bale will need to find his way into the team. Yet look at his career so far. Moved from saints to spurs at a young age: success Said to be a jinx but proves to be a success started off as an attacking full back ...success moved to Left wing... success Moved to forward... success Also last season, for the beginning of the season, Bale was largely off form, he always takes a wee while to adapt to a new position, even in a league he is used to performing in, so why would playing for the biggest club in the world, as a club record signing AND dealing with the pressure of moving be any different? If Bale fails, it won't be because he doesn't have the ability, it will be because he isn't allowed the chance to settle into a new position, but I expect once he does, he will be prove to be a success.
This just proves the ludicrous, unrealistic level of expectation at that club, there's no time for reasons (excuses). That goes for managers aswell as players.
