Gareth Bale has announced his retirement from football - at both club and international levels. 33 seems to be a bit young to retire, but when you've been there and done that, motivation must be hard to maintain.
The reality is, he has been semi-retired for the past few years. Or if you prefer, he has been selective in game time.
I know he's had great success, but I do think the last few years of his career have been disappointing.
i was thinking that.. . and then took a look: Even though there was a lot of critcism about his time at Real... he actually had a better goal average than at Tottenham prior to that. I think there was such a high expecation of him
Doug King’s takeover of Coventry official. https://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/2023/ja...ajority-owner-of-coventry-city-football-club/ Good news for their fans to finally get rid of the previous owners.
I think the main problem there was the expectation Yorkie. He moved there for 101 Million, which, at the time was Real's record transfer fee. For that price, and also because he was the highest earning player, they expected a sex symbol (somebody to take over from Ronaldo) and he was anything but that. He was also very much of a loner within the group prefering to play golf on his own rather than socializing with the rest of the team. But the main problem was that he spent 7 years there and never bothered to show any interest in either the language or the culture. Everyone knows that if you transfer to another country then the first priority is to make an effort to learn the new language - when Pep Guardiola moved to Bayern he had been taking German lessons for 6 months previously and was able to give an interview in the language on his first day there (albeit not a perfect one). Bale was still expecting to give interviews to the Spanish media in English after having been there for 7 years and that's not the way to win friends.
I'm not sure I agree with that. If I went to live in another country, I would try to learn the language as a matter of personal preference, as well as making work easier plus all the other benefits of making life easier. But it's not a given, not part of his contract (as far as I know) and therefore ,it's his personal preference. It didn't seem to affect his work ! As for media interviews, did he ask for them. If his contract didn't require him to give them in Spanish, that's all there is to be said. It's different for managers - they have to communicate with the media - and they realise the club benefits from accurate reporting. ( Aside - is 'accurate reporting' an oxymoron ?) If his refusal to learn the language made for a difficult relationship, then I agree - it's something he could have chosen to address. But - his choice.
It's a funny thing the language thing... but yes because he was a superstar they wanted him to be different off the pitch. He signed to play football eh..................
But he moved to a different country with his family - you would think that he would make an effort for the sake of his children, at least one of whom was of school age whilst there. Doing that would surely have helped them fit in.
Ok. but I was just explaining why he was unpopular with the fans and the media there. If a player was at Watford for seven years and, after that time, insisted on giving his interviews only in Spanish or German would you feel any real connection to that player ? It's not the club who is paying his wages but, indirectly, you the fan and if he shows your culture and language no respect then why should you feel any for him - particularly if he's earning more in a week that you can earn in five years.
No i agree... .i think when expectation is so high... the player becomes something else in the minds of the fans and the media....
Time wasting seems to be getting too much even for the authorities and the officials are allowing it to happen by not punishing players enough . https://www.skysports.com/football/...-stoppages-with-ifab-set-to-discuss-solutions Does there need to be independent time keeping or World Cup style injury time so massive amounts of the game isn’t lost? Also refs need to be braver and book players earlier without the endless warnings that get ignored?
"despite an increased number of cautions for yellow cards, the situation is getting worse" Ironically, that in itself must surely be adding to the amount of time wasted... Something certainly needs to be done - and change should probably come from the players themselves as they are the problem and they need to own it. Time in the sin bin does sound good though - another card for the ref to wave at the first sign of timewasting, to be followed by a red at the first sign of dissent.
