Gareth Bale: 'Without Real Madrid, it would have been very, very difficult to have ever left Spurs'

[mawspurs]

He is one of the brightest stars in the Real Madrid galaxy, but off the pitch Gareth Bale has his feet firmly on the ground.

Read the full article at Telegraph

 

[Matthew]

doesnt it make you miss and love the man even more!

 

[TaoistMonkey]

not impossible though

 

[avonspurs]

Another reason why that fascist club should be destroyed!

 

[E17yid]

He would have gone somewhere else, no doubt.

He's just teasing us, Prick

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Next time we get the tales about Redknapp being keen to sell Bale to [insert club], refer people back to this:

‘Harry Redknapp gave me a real kick up the arse when he arrived,’ he says. ‘He was the one who started the ball rolling. If I didn’t get that kick I wouldn’t be where I am now. It happens with young players, but I needed that kick.’

I'm sure he's referring, in part, to what Harry was [somewhat scornfully] describing as the young Bale's tendency to roll about dramatically when tackled, moan and not get up and get on with it. Harry said he told the other coaches and the physios to leave him alone to sort himself out.

As I wrote the other day, it's largely his own fault, but Redknapp is criminally underrated as a manager, including by many on here.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

And just to be fair, there's this, too:

It would take another couple of seasons before that promise matured into consistent excellence. The lightbulb moment? A meeting with Tottenham’s new coach in the summer of 2012. ‘I said at the beginning of that 2012/2013 season that I felt I could go up a level and was frustrated by being double-marked every game on the left-wing,’ Bale says. ‘André Villas-Boas had just joined and we had this big chat. We decided to give me that free role where I was able to wander and find space. That was it, then. As soon as we did it, I started playing better and scoring more goals, the team began winning more games and it had a snowball effect. My confidence was sky-high.’

 

[Dougal]

Fuck Real Madrid. Fuck them up the arse. With a red hot poker.

Sideways.

 

[Gassin's finest]

He'd have gone to Barcelona too.

And the one thing Redknapp has always been praised as is an excellent manager of individuals and getting the best out of them.

 

[WhiteHeartLowe]

I'm sure I read a comment he made not long after he left saying that even if RM had not come in for him, he felt it was time to move on from Spurs.

 

[avonspurs]

oh god please lets not turn this into another redknapp thread! Yes, underrated by some; overrated by others. I think one thing a lot of people on this forum may agree with is that discussion about him has become very dull and predictable.

 

[E17yid]

I'm sure I read a comment he made not long after he left saying that even if RM had not come in for him, he felt it was time to move on from Spurs.

Of course he would have, the idea that he would have turned down any big money move (while we were struggling for honours) is frankly, laughable

 

[Jimmyjimmyo]

He knows how to play the PR game,

loves us so much he refused to wear the shirt and went on strike to get his move.

 

[DCSPUR]

As dm points out he is a big fan of avb

 

[UbeAstard]

As I wrote the other day, it's largely his own fault, but Redknapp is criminally underrated as a manager, including by many on here.

And I still don't think that interaction makes Redknapp a great manager. A decent prem manager OK, but one of those that takes the sum of parts and makes it greater, no! As you have later recognised, AVB is credited by Bale for further developing his career. Doesn't make him a great manager either but would have been interesting to see what he (AVB) would have done with another year at Spurs.

 

[striebs]

"Real Madrid galaxy"

Those Yanks have no shame .

 

[guiltyparty]

I know the guy who did this interview. Huge Spurs fan, which I think is pretty obvious in the way he's written the piece. Said it was the hardest interview he's ever had to do as he was pretty much awestruck.

 

[zinzanzee]

Privalaged to have seen GB develop into the player he is in a Spurs shirt. Seems so long ago and so far from where we are now. As bad as things are we are not that far off and we have not yet really played as a team. COYS.

 

[myhartlane]

I'm sure I read a comment he made not long after he left saying that even if RM had not come in for him, he felt it was time to move on from Spurs.

Wouldn't surprise me if he did say that, why wouldn't he? He's seen first hand how careers can take off when people leave Tottenham, just see how well Vertongen will do when he goes to United.