Gareth Bale

daryl hannah said:

Any deal to us would be on loan, right?

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Well that would be my preferred choice as I’ve said. A permanent deal is for me dangerous.

WiganSpur said:

I wouldn’t go that far, but look at teams who do this sort of thing. Signing injury prone players 30+ on huge contracts. It’s not a sustainable business model. I don’t doubt he’s a great player. But we can sign incredible players that are much younger, fitter and can be moulded from Poch’s point of view. I think we have to be majorly careful of the ‘Sanchez effect’ as well.

If we are going to spend big, whether that be on wages or fees, at least spend it on players such as De Ligt, De Jong, Ndombele etc.

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I think that's where the loan or free transfer idea, and RM subsidising his wages changes things. It mitigates the risk by not saddling the club with a huge financial liability over an extended period.

Any signing would require him meeting with Poch, and I confident he'd be able to look into his eyes and see if he really was ready and willing for a new challenge. Ed Woodward was probably thinking about shirt sales and social media metrics when he signed Sanchez and little else.

When you combine the two things (Levy getting a brilliant deal out of RM and Poch meeting with Bale and being impressed with his ambitions) you are probably looking at pretty low odds of it actually coming off, but as we all know he has to end up somewhere.

If it was to all fall into place I'd be all for it. I don't believe he's the broken man or egotistical shirker some in here are portraying him as. I think there could be a couple of top seasons left in him under the right conditions, which we could provide IMHO. VdV mark II one could say. If there was ever a time we could make a short term gamble like this it's now, revenue growth rocketing ahead of costs. Literally no one here is advocating us to give him £500-600k a week for 4.5 years as Utd did with Sanchez.

There should be little sentiment here from us as fans. What we crave is a change in mentality from the board that would allow us to compete at the top. With the manager, stadium, training facilities and recent “success”, we are primed to take this on.

Have Moura, Son, Lamela, Dele and Eriksen been good - excellent for us? Yes. But if Pochettino thinks Bale would improve us and Levy can somehow make it possible, then I’d have no problem letting others step up to prove they are good enough to play for Spurs or be sold if not.

I’m not too sure Bale is willing to return to Spurs unless he’s in some way given assurances of investment and our competitiveness.

Can’t see it happening as I suspect the financial side of things make this deal unlikely, but it’s hard to rule out with the posts above.

is Bale HG ?

If the club can afford the deal financially without us missing out on other targets, I am really struggling to see how people can not want bale

Twizzle said:

is Bale HG ?

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hg and club trained i think

coy-spurs1882 said:

hg and club trained i think

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he was with us at 17 or 18, HG could be a factor here if that's the case

Just imagine, for a moment, that Levy and Poch were chatting a month ago.

Levy: you know these major targets we have, they want assurances about our ambition and investment. That we have some kind of plan. Before they’ll sign for us.

Poch: yeah, and Toby and Cristian say similar things.

Levy: Tell you what, let’s try this. You tell the media we now need a NEW 5 year plan. People will assume you’re pressuring me to spend more as part of that plan. So when you seem happy to stay, our targets and players will assume I’ve agreed to some new plan, even though it’s already what we intended to do.

Poch: Hey boss, berry good idea. Leave it to me.

Archibald&Crooks said:

Fucking hell, click the link and find out. Jesus, I'm not your nan

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Whaaa?! Who gets their nan to look up internet based info for them???

Another point worth reiterating is that I'd imagine one of the best British players (if not the best) of the last 20 years would like a shot at winning the Premier League. I think the only club he has a chance of that with is us.

I can't see City needing him, Liverpool are probably covered in wide attacking positions also. Chelsea transfer ban, Arsenal being Arsenal and United being 2 or 3 years off a title challenge. It only leaves us, and I refuse to believe this hasn't been through Bale's head.

Twizzle said:

he was with us at 17 or 18, HG could be a factor here if that's the case

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He was 16 when we signed him.

minesadouble said:

Just imagine, for a moment, that Levy and Poch were chatting a month ago.

Levy: you know these major targets we have, they want assurances about our ambition and investment. That we have some kind of plan. Before they’ll sign for us.

Poch: yeah, and Toby and Cristian say similar things.

Levy: Tell you what, let’s try this. You tell the media we now need a NEW 5 year plan. People will assume you’re pressuring me to spend more as part of that plan. So when you seem happy to stay, our targets and players will assume I’ve agreed to some new plan, even though it’s already what we intended to do.

Poch: Hey boss, berry good idea. Leave it to me.

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I genuinely believe it is something similar. To think Poch needs to go to the press to get a message to Levy is insane. They seem to have a very good working relationship and so I'd imagine they talk about these things on a regular basis.

There's been times this season when Llorente or Janssen have been the ONLY attacking option on our bench, can't believe re-signing Bale is even up for debate. If there's a deal to be done that we can afford we should absolutely make it happen.

If signing a four times CL winner and at one point the most expensive player in the world isn't a signal of intent I don't know what is. If he ends up going to another Prem club and tearing it up you'll all be crying about it.

NickHSpurs said:

There's been times this season when Llorente or Janssen have been the ONLY attacking option on our bench, can't believe re-signing Bale is even up for debate. If there's a deal to be done that we can afford we should absolutely make it happen.

If signing a four times CL winner and at one point the most expensive player in the world isn't a signal of intent I don't know what is.

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Will bale be fit? will we be pissing away a load of cash that we can invest in a good young player? yes we would all love the liverpool desstroying champions league bale, but is that player on offer? i doubt it as they would not be offering to loan him out!

NickHSpurs said:

There's been times this season when Llorente or Janssen have been the ONLY attacking option on our bench, can't believe re-signing Bale is even up for debate. If there's a deal to be done that we can afford we should absolutely make it happen.

If signing a four times CL winner and at one point the most expensive player in the world isn't a signal of intent I don't know what is. If he ends up going to another Prem club and tearing it up you'll all be crying about it.

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Even Llorente & Janssen in that post is gonna make me cry. Christ sake.....

newbie said:

Will bale be fit? will we be pissing away a load of cash that we can invest in a good young player? yes we would all love the liverpool desstroying champions league bale, but is that player on offer? i doubt it as they would not be offering to loan him out!

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The fitness thing is a myth, people have already proved he's missed no more games than Dele or Kane in the last couple of seasons and this is Real Madrid we're talking about, not a club that follows logic. His ability is not the reason he's being sold, he doesn't "fit in" to the circus over there.

WiganSpur said:

I wouldn’t go that far, but look at teams who do this sort of thing. Signing injury prone players 30+ on huge contracts. It’s not a sustainable business model. I don’t doubt he’s a great player. But we can sign incredible players that are much younger, fitter and can be moulded from Poch’s point of view. I think we have to be majorly careful of the ‘Sanchez effect’ as well.

If we are going to spend big, whether that be on wages or fees, at least spend it on players such as De Ligt, De Jong, Ndombele etc.

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That's a perfectly fair argument, and in the main I tend to agree with you, which is why signing a 30+ year old player(s) should be a very rare and considered part of our transfer policy.

Bale is still a Top 10 level player in world football imo, nobody else at or near his level would be remotely attainable - IF he even is attainable.

We're going through a cycle now of replacing Dembele, Eriksen, and Toby (and soon Vertonghen, Sissoko, and Lloris), which will be very difficult to do by attracting enough the A-list level prospects.

I'm talking about those who can contribute to a Top 4 or title challenging XI in their first season or two. De Ligt, De Jong, NDombele, Brandt etc. If you gave me a choice I would pick Sancho or Brandt over Bale - but we've not been able to do it.

We should 100% be all in for these guys, and we'll get the occasional result (Eriksen at 21, Alli at 18, hopefully Sessegnon), but even with our improving status and budget, there is fierce competition for these players and I don't believe we're going to be able to attract, afford, and successfully integrate enough of them to maintain or improve our standing.

So we've got to be creative.

A blend of occasional A-List prospects where everything falls right for us, lesser B-List prospect (Foyth, Aarons, Clarke etc) developed more patiently over time, and perhaps the occasional experienced star to lead them.

Players like Bale can actually inspire the confidence, mentality, and professionalism for these young talents to prosper.

At first glance he might not look good on a spreadsheet, but even then that's also assuming sponsors and future generations of domestic and overseas fans don't care about big players and trophies.

If we want to talk about sustainability, we ought to think about generating as many new fans as our rivals.

Heck I'm still supporting Spurs 30 years later in part because we happened to sign a 29 year old Gary Lineker at the time I got into football, and wasted countless money and emotion all through the intervening years we were shit!

Sorry all but if anyone on here is doubting the wisdom of re-signing Gareth Bale after the spell he had for us previously really needs to think about following another sport. As for finances I have no interest, I will leave that to Daniel Levy because frankly he knows what he is doing with the clubs money a lot better than me. Bring Gareth home.

Some of his highlights from a the last year or so. Life in the old dog yet!

midoNdefoe said:

Whaaa?! Who gets their nan to look up internet based info for them???

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Not anymore. I haven't even had a Christmas card from her since I asked her to check what a goatse was...

EDIT: Don't Google that if you're at work and don't know what it is. Ask your nan.