I really don't want to get into a debate that includes the term "world class". It's a nebulous term that means different things to different people. However, I will say there are dozens (if not hundreds) of highly talented, very promising 17-year-old footballers around the world and very few (if any) of them will go on to be bought for £80m. The bolded part of your post is total speculation. You simply can't know that. The fact is that Spurs have developed Bale into the player he is. They deserve credit for that, they do not deserve to be dismissed with "Well anyone could have done it". You also can't dismiss a player's position as a meaningless label. Newcastle missed out on signing Alan Shearer as a kid because they'd only seen him play in goal, we missed Kevin Phillips because he played right back. The position a player plays in is vital. When Bale left Southampton he was seen as a promising left back, not as the next Cristiano Ronaldo.
I agree with all of your post except the last sentence. I remember watching Bale as a marauding LB who played like a winger, so in essence, a little like he plays now and if I really stretch it.. a little Ronaldoesque.
He's a good lad, played well for us and moved on when we were desperate for his money. He has continued to improve, so good luck to him. Yes, I am a little proud that he came from our academy, though he has moved on a lot since then.
Haha. I suspect there's some hindsight in there but there's not much point us arguing over what your views on Bale were 6 years ago because I doubt either of us can prove anything one way or the other. I'm also not arguing that he didn't have much ability when he was here or that Spurs made him from nothing. He was clearly a good player when he left us, but he was nowhere near as good as he is now. Your views aside, most people in 2007 saw Bale as a left back and that's where he played most of his games. I know Arsene Wenger has been quoted as saying Arsenal weren't interested in Bale because they didn't need a left back. If it was obvious to you that he was more of a winger then you have to question why Wenger thought he was a left back and why the management here and at Spurs kept playing him at left back? Actually, perhaps Southampton held back his development by playing him out of position?
[video=youtube;sDxNsM_yHPE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDxNsM_yHPE[/video] Was watching this video last night (Bale's top 10 goals 2013) and it still amazes me how good he has got. His goal against us is in there.
It was also the smallest surprise in the World to me when Spurs pushed Bale up the field. Sometimes I think Saints had a policy of starting a player off at RB or LB, according to their natural side and then progressing them up the field. Bale never got beyond LB for Saints.
And these from when he was a left-back at Southampton (excuse the music and the bizarre commentary mentioning Berbatov) wouldn't be out of place among that selection: [video=youtube;WxlphjL3VZY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxlphjL3VZY[/video]
Pretty bloody astonishing. For that ability alone he's worth a huge amount of money. There are only one or two players in the World who can literally terrify defences, and he's one of them. Add to that he can defend pretty well too. Tremendous pace and technical ability. The all-round player. His right foot is getting pretty good these days too, but that left foot was born to kick a football. What he can impart to the ball doesn't appear possible until you see it.
