He had the option to join Man Utd or Spurs and he chose Spurs, Piskie. Kinda kills both of your claims in one go, doesn't it?
Spurs don't want to sell, Bale has not expressed any desire to leave and I doubt there are any clubs who would break the bank for him at this moment in time if £50-60M is the going rate; so any talk of a transfer is wild speculation. As for not joining Utd- I wonder if he has any regrets? He would have been a first team regular for the past two years had he developed in the way he has at Spurs, although it shouldn't be forgotten that when he signed as a 17 year old he was only seen as a full back. Evra was only mid-20s then and the chance of breaking into the first team would have seemed a distant aim. His career stagnated at Spurs for 3 years before suddenly taking off as a left winger. Who would have foreseen that he would develop into the player he has become? (SAF, most probably, hence Utd's interest in the first place!)
I don't think anybody could foresee just how good he would become. Anyway, whatever the price was before tonight, it just went up...considerably!..
Well, Little Luke, that is the $20 million question, isn't it! Bale obviously chose us over you, because he felt that he'd have more of a chance to get regular first-team football as quickly as possible. He achieved that, and then had the good luck to get the chance to try his luck in a position that we have always struggled with, and the rest (as they say) is history. Alex Ferguson has been very good, over the years, at stealing top, fully developed talent from other squads, especially ours, but that is absolutely no guarantee that he would have seen Bale as the kind of Midfielder that he's developed into. Sure, he'd have become a very pacy LB, but would he have developed quickly enough to nail that slot in the United side? There are as many arguments against assuming so, as there are for. What I am confident of, is that Bale, being the intelligent young lad he is, knows that one of the reasons he is now looking so good, is because he has had the entire Spurs squad built around him, and he is reaping the benefits. Stick him in a United or Madrid shirt and that simply will not happen, same as it hasn't happened for Modric. He'd just be another galactico among galacticos, and the minute he failed to find his rhythm and put in a bad performance, the fans would be on his back, and he'd lose confidence. I'm sure Bale knows all of this, and that he won't make the mistake of leaving us too early in his career. We've got him for at least another three seasons, of that I am confident.
Haha elaborate please. As for Bale, you may or may not have built your current squad around him and he may flourish at Spurs more than he would individually at Barca, at United, at Chelsea, at Bayern or at Madrid but fundamentally, every one of those teams can offer Gareth Bale a very realistic opportunity to challenge for major honours, right now and get paid probably double at least for doing so. Fact of the matter is, there's very few players who would spurn the opportunity to get involved with these clubs, they make childhood dreams come true. They don't just talk. I don't want to sound patronising but with FFP coming up very soon, none of these clubs are window shopping, waiting for the Bale's and Neymar's of this world to finish paying lip service.
Not every child dreams of playing for Barca, Madrid and as a fan of Spurs I've never even had a **** over United never mind a dream.
Chelsea have ruined many promising careers, as have Madrid. United and Barca less so. Bale could've tried to force a move to any of these clubs at any point in the past few years and probably got it. Bale seems to have been waiting for the right time though, who knows whether he believes that's this summer or next, or the one after. I think Bale understands that moves for him are going to be difficult so when he leaves us he'll want to be sure he's at a club he'll want to stay at for the rest of his career. As much as he wants to win trophies he won't want to make the wrong move and end up on the bench or worse even if it's at a club where he can still be expecting to pick up a medal or two each year. Personally I think his dream is to play in the same team as Ronaldo, he clearly looks up to him and if he's speculated to leave again this summer I don't think Bale will move.
Elaborate please. Spurlock, I'm not saying every child dreams of this...I'm stating that most footballers, when they were growing up as kids would dream of winning big trophies like the world cup and champions league, even the Premier League. It's generally considered as part of the fabric of a professional footballer. Only later in their careers when they actually turn professional does the money start playing its part. If a player thinks there's a possibility of winning something at the club they've supported all their lives like Alan Shearer and Steven Gerrard then they'll commit to them. I'm sure Bale loves Spurs, don't get me wrong you have a fantastic club but the realism is, you can't guarantee to deliver any trophies let alone the ones Bale is capable of winning.
"We had to keep everything under wraps, so the club (PSV) didn't find out about the unofficial approach. We spent most of our 30 minutes just talking about what my plans were and how he'd like me to come to Old Trafford. There was no discussion about positional play, contracts or money. I guess he just wanted to meet me and see what kind of guy I was. "He strode into the room, full of confidence and smiling broadly. Jaap, I want you to play for Manchester United,' he said. `I want you to command our back line and help us to win the Champions League'." You know, that sort of thing.^
In recent history no but right now we have Bale and a very good squad which if Bale stays in even for another season or two will enable us to attract other top players. Nobody can guarantee trophies, look at Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid, but Spurs are very close to a major breakthrough and Levy will be doing his utmost to enable Spurs to keep that going. Bale is contracted until 2016 that means it is going to be very expensive indeed for anyone who wishes to sign him.
I agree with a lot of this, Chelsea, like City is a graveyard for talent but you only have to look at the instability of the coaching staff at these clubs to understand why. I don't agree that Bale could force his way to any of these clubs in any season prior to this one though, apart from Chelsea maybe. Barcelona did not need a LW, Madrid certainly didn't and Fergie had his sights on Ashley Young for one reason or another. This season Bale is much more versatile in an attacking sense and has opened a whole load more doors for himself. I'm glad he's stayed at Spurs, because I agree that he wouldn't have been offered the freedom to develop at the two Spanish giants, but he has to take that step to become a great, same as Neymar, same as Falcao will have to. I suggested last week he's a ready made replacement for Villa at Barcelona and I maintain that. He's not a like for like replacement but Barca don't need that. The extra dimension he would offer them would make them unstoppable, even more unstoppable. I fear he will end up stranded at Madrid though, Mourinho will leave and so will Ronaldo, one more season for Ronaldo before he jets off to his next destination, and Bale looks like the most likely candidate to fill his boots, I just can't see it being Neymar.
Philips Spurs Vereniging - interesting. Give me an example of Fergie "stealing" a player from Spurs. Let's not get into tapping up, your last manager who built the squad you support is king of the ****ing hill.
Berbatov. Name one player that Redknapp's illegally approached. Given that he wasn't even involved in signings at Spurs, that would've been pretty difficult during his time at WHL, for a start.
Where? Any serious critic would put you firmly alongside Arsenal now. Realistically you can compete with Arsenal, but they're not even close to challenging for the league title, that's why RVP is playing for us now. Nobody mentioned Arsenal and Liverpool as viable options and last time I looked Real Madrid were La Liga champions. It's hard to write this without sounding patronising, I hope you do start challenging for the league, this league desperately needs that to happen after money has dominated the division for so long now. I'd never begrudge a side the league title who built from the bottom up and earned it. I get where some of you are coming from, in an ideal world Spurs would persuade Bale that he's the start of something amazing and he can be the start of a legacy for your club, but agents whispering in their ears and an absolute guarantee of challenging for honours, wages, playing with legends, your place of work being the Santiago Bernabea, or Camp Nou for example (you can't build a stadium with history and soul) it's just not an ideal industry. The funds from his sale could give you much more than he can personally.
Yeah, sorry, my bad you're right. Fergie stole Berbatov and accidentally posted you a cheque for £30m. Wake up pal, because you're absolutely deluded if you think you can legitimately hang on to players once they know bigger clubs are after their services, no matter how they hear about it, this has nothing to do with Fergie. Spurs unsettled Zeki Fryers last season, he ended up at Spurs in a roundabout way after we quoted you £3m, there's more than a whiff of suspicion with that transfer. As for Arry, he openly discusses players that don't belong to him. He's a ****ing cancer on this game and the fact that Odemwingie has left WBA in the position they are in is all the proof I need that Harry Redknapp is a ****ing gutter rat.
This is possibly the most hypocritical post I've ever seen. Man Utd tapping someone up = fair game. Another manager talking about a player = ****ing gutter rat! You're attempting to compare Redknapp's "triffic player" comments with an ex-Utd player actually admitting to dishonest meetings with your manager. If that makes Redknapp a gutter rat, then what does it make Fergie?
