Gareth Bale - Tells Lies

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...nt-celebrate-scoring-against-Southampton.html

As far as I can remember, he ran to the corner of the pitch, slid on his knees and celebrated by hugging his team mate...

Looks like Mr. Bale isn't all that perfect

 

Yep, it all went out of the window when the goal went in! Incidentally, does anyone know if our fans gave him stick at the Lane? If they did, it might go a little way in explaining his choice of celebration.

 

Celebrating I can understand, it was a massive goal for Spurs and it came late on in the game... but its a poor show to say that he won't and then celebrate as he did.

 

I do think this "I won't celebrate" is a nonsense. I remember Beattie not celebrating after he scored for Everton. Similarly, Dyer at SMS this season. I didn't care that the player didn't celebrate - if he wanted to show us he still loved us he should have missed the ****ing goal!

 

Players are paid to play and score goals for their respective clubs - their loyalty obviously has to lie with them. However, if an opposing club has contributing to a player's career in a massive way, such as Bale at Saints or Van Persie at Arsenal then I think it's only right that they show respect to that club - it's just a small gesture and I personally applaud it when I see any player act out a muted celebration in the circumstances.

One of the most infamous celebrations was Adebayor in front of the Arsenal fans - from a mutual perspective it was disgraceful

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I can't stand it when players don't celebrate goals against their old clubs.

I'm not sure when this modern thing of "respecting the club/fans" came in, but it's pretty recent and already seems like the norm now.

Goals are very precious commodities and players are paid handsomly to score them for their current club, no matter who against and celebrate with the fans of their club. It's a joyous moment to share, its what football's about.

Yes, the Adebayor incident went too far the other way, but its just back to common sense.

Fans are increasingly pious about what happens on the pitch regarding behaviour. Personally, I'd rather an ex-saint celebrated a goal against us then time waste / steal yards at freekicks & throwins / feign injury / harrang the ref.

Not celebrating a goal is getting right up there with minutes applause during games for this or that or increasingly very little.

 

Personally I'd prefer it if the player did celebrate, but didn't score, rather than the other way round.

 

I'd rather worry about the important stuff, like who won't shake hands and who is Twittering about someone else.

 

I think you may be onto something there. If bale hadn't scored we could all have celebrated!

 

Fans are way too hypocritical regarding player behaviour. They get constant abuse from opposition supporters, but the second they do something back? Massive ****storm. It's massively unfair. Where's the protection that every other profession gets?

 

All he said was he would be "muting his celebrations" which he sort of did. Ok he slid on his knees but that was it.

This new trend of not celebrating is stupid anyway. Means half the goals scored in the league aren't celebrated. If your goal relegates your former team or something, fine, celebrating then might be crass, but otherwise?

 

I read something about an english footballer about 40 years ago not wanting to score aginst his old team because it would likely relegate them, can't remember much more but pretty sure he didn't celebrate when he did unfortunately score (i think his old side weren't relegated though)l.

When I see bale and Van Persie muting their celebration i see it as them being self righteous, a show of them being the better man rather than any deep feeling for their old club. Walcott muting his celebration I find easier to believe as I assume he is less of a dickhead than Bale and Van Persie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJLNu16z_Qs, perhaps this video will provide a little bit of insight into how emotional it can be playing professional sport against your former team mates. The context is it's after an australian rules football match in which the interviewee played against the team he had played for 9 years. He also cried when his old team lost the grand final.

 

I think that would be Denis Law relegating Man United by scoring a backheel for Man City.

EDIT - Yip. Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRgAW_lvplo

 

yeah that was the one, cheers for that, from the brief glimpse it seems his celebration was appropriate, I wasn't around at the time so don't really know how goals were celebrated, probably with less enthusiasm than today, not sure though.

 

Spot on, on all counts. I think it was the Adebayor incident that triggered this modern feigned 'respect' nonsense. Having said that, I'll never forget the Denis Law goal for Man City against Man Utd. He was truly devastated that he'd scored.

 

How do you stop these double posts?

 

Make that triple posts?

 

and we all loved him for it!

 

'this'. I find it such a self-righteous, 'look-how-humble-i-am', contrived gesture. Had absolutely no issue with Bale celebrating, in the same way that I didn't revere him as Jesus incarnate for not celebrating at St. Mary's. He's a Spurs player now, and celebrating a goal that kept alive their Champions League ambition alive was far more important than any spurious gesture of sentimentality towards us.

 

For me, if a player doesn't want to celebrate as a sign of respect or whatever then fine, they shouldn't celebrate. I don't really care either way whether they do or not because it's a relatively meaningless and pointless gesture (unless your goal relegates your old team). However, all this crap where they come out in the papers and say "Oh I won't celebrate" as though it matters? Yes, that does annoy me.

There's also this new, incredibly ostentatious, way of "not celebrating" that seems to have been started by Cristiano Ronaldo. The player stands stock still with his arms out, palms facing downwards. That's the worst for me. The player may as well scream out "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME NOT CELEBRATING THE GOAL I JUST SCORED!"