Bale is now a European Champion, well done to the young man, he is after all never likely to make an impact in the World Cup. He'll probably share Giggs's fate by virtue of playing for Wales, no insult to Wales intended. We know at Spurs that he is a game changer but how big an influence is he? Spurs finished only one place lower without him than with him and that's despite the chopping and changing of our squad and management, but I have a feeling that if we were to have had Bale in this present English squad he would have made a BIG difference. How MUCH difference do you think he would have made? And how much difference would taking Messi out of Argentina, or Ronaldo out of Portugal make to their respective teams?
taking Ronaldo out of Portugal absolutly destroys them. Messi less so. Bale would obviously walk into the England side, and he would, i think, give the rest of the team more confidence. A bit like Barkley and Sterling could do (maybe in 2016 Euros). I don't think he would make us contenders though. Probably put us in quarters, possibly semis territory, which you could argue we are now with quarters
I just have this feeling that individual special players make a bigger difference in a national side than a club side. Club sides play every week, the players know each other better etc.
If Bale was English then England would have a real match winner that performs and turns up in the big big games and thus giving the rest of the side a boost too. U only have to look at how Spurs performed in the big matches with Bale in the side, compared to without him.
With Bale we would have half a chance. You see the difference he makes for Wales, he not only runs the show but he drags others up around him. The only trouble is their defence sucks and ours isn't great either so we'd still need a lot of luck even with one of the best players in the World in our side.
People wondered the same about George Best and I think the same applies, that he and Bale if English would have made a huge difference to us.
Bale is good, very good and could well have a season where he is on par with Ronaldo, but as we have seen with Ronaldo & Messi (they can't carry their respective nations) and their teams have far more talent then ours. When you see teams like Greece win the Euro's then it makes you wonder what England could do (if everything went right) but we're not a small footballing nation and even if we had Bale, the same would happen. We would lose on penalties, Rooney would still get sent off and Bale would probably do a wonder run but hit the post!
England would have a real world class player for once. No more talk, I loved him, he made me happy, he was the only thing worth watching since our little Croat decided silverware was more important than Levy's "Next Project". I miss him, he made a grey day blue , he scared the pants off any team, back to the wilderness of despair. I have his picture for ever in my shed (reading Dylan Thomas in his underwear ) but I can never look up because a tear will appear. . Chin up Sid
Like any player of world class ability, he poses a serious threat to any opposition. Opposing teams know this and are therefore obliged to legislate for him. They know that they can never relax when he's around - take your concentration away from him for one minute, and the damage will most likely be done. In short he forces opposing teams to adapt. Whilst they are concentrating on Bale, it allows other players more freedom to cause problems elsewhere. His very presence on the pitch is enough to set the alarm bells ringing for any opposing side.
Bale would give any side a great attacking threat, but he wouldn't be the solution to England's main problem which is the inability to control the ball in midfield. Being unable to string together more than three meaningful passes and having only 35% possession against the leading teams would limit Bale's effectiveness considerably.
We are England we don't need Barcelona style possession except in the penalty area. If we are losing the possession stats. I am not bothered at all. Rooney is not in the side for his passing.
He would need to return to Madrid for a 'quite life'. The hype was already beginning when he was at Spurs, one of the reasons Levy was reluctant to sell him despite the big fee. Just imagine the publicity value to Spurs we have lost, apart from the football.
Now "tear" is one of those words with different meanings and pronounciation but the same spelling. Sure it can be what comes out of your eyes, but also it can be when you rip something. Now for some reason I had that last meaning in my head when I read Sid's post, and the last line reads somewhat different if you use and pronounce tear differently.
