And he'll never play fullback again I think. Not as anything more than an emergency stand in. The fact that we're playing Vertonghen there atm instead of him when Bale played there for us as his first choice position not so long ago says it all recently. I mean on paper he should be able to boss the position but it just doesn't work it seems.
Bale's too good a player to be wasted at LB, except in emergencies. We need him as an attacker, which is where he is at his most valuable. RM would need to pay about £60m to get him ATM, I doubt they would pay that for a LB, might be wrong.
Seems Davor "Cock" Suker is not the only one ramping up the pressure. Bale is only signed to 2015, therefore one more season after this and he will be in the position of selling up or risk losing on a free. Hope he signs for longer, but doubt it. Redknapp and Thomas - STFU
Pretty sure Bale's here 'til 2016 isn't he SD? So that'll shut 'em up. Anyway, f*ck Sukor and anyone else that tries touting/ tapping up our players!
SUKER is hardly tapping him up. He is merely commenting on a key player of the opposition Croatia face in tonight's WC qualifier in Osijek. What he said has absolutely no impact on Bale's future, its just a compliment. Here's to hoping Bale has an absolute stinker tonight anyway
Suker/Sukor... He's just a pr*ck to me anyway. We've seen enough of these Croatian legends, relatives and agents constantly talk about OUR players. Everyday we saw Luka talked up by one of them, got sick of it then and now seeing them mention Bale, deja vu?
I suggest you avoid reading these type of reports in the future, if they grind your gears that much One thing is for sure, when a player like Luka moves to a club like Madrid it will naturally cause a bit of a stir in his home country. Why shouldn't they talk up Luka? He is after-all an amazing player.
How could I have avoided them when everytime I stuck SSN on, there was always comments of "Luka should be allowed to leave", "It's inevitable he'll go", "Tottenham/ Levy are holding him to ransom" flashing up. I rarely read newspapers yet whenever I checked the sports section - bang - another Luka article. Yes he's an amazing player, hence the reason I was p*ssed at losing him, I can appreciate Real are a far superior club and that yes, it was inevitable he'd go but what we don't need, is constant speculation from his agent or retired internationals constantly talking him up in order to get a move done quickly which pressure us into a quick sale in which we could potentially lose out on some money. The reported £28m for Modric is a steal in my eyes, we could have easily got another £10m in my opinion yet the amount of people constantly talking on the issue which swayed Luka's head and caused him to become a complete unprofessional mug probably played a major part in us just basically saying, "fine, we'll take the offer just go". Now we're starting to see it with Bale. Suker, Coleman, Redknapp and the other fella are already saying how hard it'll be to retain him or that he can play for Barca and Madrid or any other European powerhouse as if we didn't already know that. I can understand talking up the players ability, such as "Gareth's an amazing player, a world class talent" but when adding "he can play or should play for Barca etc" it plays on the players' mind and therefore can affect his performances or willingness to play - which we saw with Luka.
Thanks, thought I remembered something more recent than my link! Annoyingly, the link I sent was used in a more recent story.
Hi Sos, Ok the Modric stuff is somewhat different. My original comment was regarding Suker's comments re Gareth Bale, and the reason for those comments being that Croatia play v Wales tonight in an important fixture and not him acting as an agent on Real Madrid's behalf. I don't think the media reports and quotes from various parties influenced Daniel Levy in Modric negotiations, do you? You say we were forced to sell quick, but i wouldn't call end of the transfer window as a speedy sale. And that't not even counting the saga the year before, during which Levy proved he won't bow to media pressure. I was under the impression Luka went for a little over £32 million with a "official partnership" with Real to boot. Not bad if you ask me.
I think it's great that Bale is getting so much praise from outsiders, shame some some Spurs can't highlight how brilliant he is, instead of moaning about his 'diving'. Modric went because he had the chance to go to a bigger club, every chance that Bale will do the same. So unless ENIC up their game considerably, highly unlikely, we should enjoy our Welsh wizard while we have him, and not keep knocking him, like some do.
I wouldn't go knocking fellow Spurs fans regarding what they may have said about Bale's alleged dives if I were you, as I can remember when you said you would never watch Spurs again whilst the manager continued to pick Gareth Bale.
Hey Allstar I think the fact Wales and Croatia are playing each other is irrelevant. Fact is, Suker could've quite easily have said Bale's a special talent, potentially world class and praised his talents etc and left it there but highlighting he should consider a move to Madrid if the possibility arose (which to me, hints that there's interest from Madrid), is in my opinion, an indirect form of tapping up. In a way, I do think Levy was pressured into a sell, perhaps not quick as you're right, it was the end of August we parted company with Luka but I do think the pressure from media, agents, Madrid & co along with the complete lack of respect Luka showed the club and his team mates ended in Levy reluctantly accepting an offer well below what he/ we valued him. Lets not forget we rejected a £40m bid from Chelsea 12 months earlier and albeit, we may have rejected it to avoid him joining a rival, I don't think accepting a substantially less offer from abroad is necessarily the best option. I would've thought, even expected that £40m would have been the minimum we'd allow Luka to go for, I certainly rate him in that bracket, especially when you consider some of fees being spent on others over the past year or so (Carroll - £35m, Witsel - £32m, Hulk - £45m, Pastore - £30m). To receive £33m (think it was £28m up front) for a players is always a brilliant sum of money but I still feel we could've pushed Madrid for at least an extra £5m if not £10m. Personally if I were Levy I'd have said to him "you want CL football and to triple your wage? Fine, f*ck of to Anzhi!" . For the record, I'm fully behind Levy, he's done wonders for us but I think on that occasion, he got bent over the table if you know what I mean. I actually find the link with Real quite insulting, we get their cast offs (albeit, 95% of cast offs from Madrid are top players ) and they no doubt get first preference over our players. I can't really see any benefits in the link up with them. Don't get me wrong, if say in Jan we get options to bring in Kaka/ Callejon/ Higuain (all very doubtful but I can dream) and any others for knock down prices like we did with Rafa then ok, great bit of business but I can't see that happening, can you?