Gareth Bale is...The most expensive player ever?!

So where's pete with his 'Now it's the business end of the season, let's see who does more, Bale or Walcott' crap? I think we've seen the answer to that.

Obviously Walcott has had a great season, but he's nowhere near as dangerous as Bale. Bale has been conjuring goals out of nothing.
 
Lets continue our conversation POCCO:

Originally Posted by pocco
3 years? Surely it wasn't that long ago when this place was laughing at how shit he was. He was the biggest laughing stock on here for a while. Funny how everyone is now completely convinced he's the real deal and worth astronomical amounts.
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We can surely find a potentially better winger for less than what Bale would cost. Thats more like the sort of business we do.
What are you on about? 3 years ago was his performance against Inter in the Champions League. Thats the season when he came to prominence and last season he had a better season than that. And this year has been his best yet. Better left winger than Bale right now? Im not sure you can find many.Do you like not see what he has done at Tottenham? He is their main man and without him they are shit. That tells you something when he sort of single handedly wins games for them.

He was laughing stock? I dont recall people criticizing him for his performances. I think the fact that the likes of Capello mentioned him to be one of the best in the world during that 'Maicon' season was what made people laugh. He clearly wasnt that good back then but now he is not far off from being in the World XI team if someone was to pick one today.
 
I presume he got a little confused and meant four or five years ago where Spurs didn't win 25 matches in a row when he started or something along those lines, it's still a bit of a silly thing to say though.
 
alastair said:
It was 144 pages. As part of my quest to modship, I started a new one because I felt the old one had had its day.
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maybe i will apply that same logic to you

merged threads. I dont see the new thread as something thats necessary in this case.

I think in terms of the topic of conversation, its important to show that at the start of this thread people were laughing at the notion of him being compared to some of the best players in Europe. Now he's proving people wrong.
 
peterstorey said:
OK, this is the business end of the season with 12 games to go. Let's look at Bale's contribution compared with Walcott's until the end of the season.
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In the last 12 league games, Bale played 11, scored 8 and assisted 5, getting man of the match 6 times. He was rightly named player of the year.

Theo fecking Walcott played 10, scored 3 and assisted 2.

Once upon a time, you occasionally used to make a valid point.
 
The guy has just got to a level of performance that cannot be denied as top class any more, he's carried that Spurs team for the business end of the season, almost single handedly getting them into the UCL.....

Yes, I too thought he was a sh*tbag a few seasons back, what do I know ?
 
Oh yeah a few of us have had to revise our views of him. I mean he was very promising as a youngster but I never thought he'd reach these heights.

It's those who refuse to revise their views who need to wake up.
 
Has turned ridiculously good and surely it must be a matter of time before we see him at a real club, just hope it's ours...

Anyone know much about Bale? I.e is he a Spurs fan etc
 
Can't see him leaving Spurs. I have no idea why I can't but I expect to see him playing for them next season, knowing that if he stays and they sign a striker they will get champions league football.
 
I cant see him staying. I just dont think we are necessarily best placed to sign him. Though hardly badly placed. I just think there are other clubs more comfortable with these bidding war type transfers, as this one is bound to be.
 
Adebesi said:
If it is, that is very interesting. I always assumed he would quite fancy Madrid, the prestige of it, and the lifestyle factors. Mind you, I always assume that for most footballers.
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Real must be a big draw to any player - but I think United would be a big pull to Bale - possibly more so.

His family still live in Wales and he (apprently) spends a lot of time with them. He has a young family so moving to Spain would be difficult. I know what I was like at his age and something like that is daunting, regardless of money.

From a "brand" point of view a move to Real would bring huge pressure - if he doesn't suceed he could sink without trace. If they paid big bucks for him he'd have to perform or be made the scapegoat for bad performances - you can guarantee the fans and the club would be expecting another Ronaldo. If he doesnt do it he'll be seen as a failure and you can as quickly be the villain as the hero in Madrid if you dont perform.

United is a different proposition. A stable club close to his family and in a league he knows. No problem with moving, no issue with the language or the politics of a club like Real Madrid, and a chance to be the poster boy for a top club entering a new era - the money making potential for him personally of being associated with United must be huge.

It's all of course only my opinion, and if he does move on this summer it'll be interesting to see where he goes.
 
RDCR07 said:
Lets continue our conversation POCCO:



We can surely find a potentially better winger for less than what Bale would cost. Thats more like the sort of business we do.
What are you on about? 3 years ago was his performance against Inter in the Champions League. Thats the season when he came to prominence and last season he had a better season than that. And this year has been his best yet. Better left winger than Bale right now? Im not sure you can find many.Do you like not see what he has done at Tottenham? He is their main man and without him they are shit. That tells you something when he sort of single handedly wins games for them.

He was laughing stock? I dont recall people criticizing him for his performances. I think the fact that the likes of Capello mentioned him to be one of the best in the world during that 'Maicon' season was what made people laugh. He clearly wasnt that good back then but now he is not far off from being in the World XI team if someone was to pick one today.
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I was joking about the three years thing, but it was a reference to a time where he played left back for Spurs and came in for a lot of abuse on here. It just seems to be all or nothing on here with some players, they go from shit to world 11 in the blink of an eye, so to speak.

Personally I'm still going to wait before I believe that he is truly the real deal. I think he was still very hit and miss last season and theyear before, though to be fair he was only 21/22. I'd like to see if he can replicate this season, perhaps with more consistent all-round performances. I want to know that he's still an asset when the goals dry up, which they will. At the moment his assist stats could be interpreted a few ways.
 
I think he'll stay this summer and be off next summer regardless of how we do or where we finish.

Which I wouldn't begrudge him.
 
He does know he can achieve bigger and better things right? If he thinks Tottenham is the best he can do then that isn't very ambitious of him.
 
pocco said:
It just seems to be all or nothing on here with some players, they go from shit to world 11 in the blink of an eye, so to speak.
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Or in this case.....4-5 years. He was mocked because he was injured constantly and then when he got fit, Spurs lost each game they played him. 4-5 years ago. You're really not making any sense here. There's been no blink of an eye transformation at all.
 
Red Shorts said:
He does know he can achieve bigger and better things right? If he thinks Tottenham is the best he can do then that isn't very ambitious of him.
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You do know that he's only 23 right?

Bale has plenty of time to move to a bigger stage.
 
What are the Evening Standard like with their "exclusives" anyway?

But if true, fair play to him and brilliant news for spurs' fans, showed a lot of loyalty even if he does leave next year. Could have easily forced his way to a big club this summer and pocketed 200k a week. Now will give Spurs another season of his world class talent before likely leaving for a huge sum on very good terms with the club and fans (which he probably would have anyway).
 
I can see what Pocco is saying to be fair. It was only 2 seasons ago you could easily get held up for ridicule for suggesting Bale was a better prospect than Nani, with the Spurs player being written off as a one trick pony, like a slightly inferior version of Valencia. People were saying he was shit at coming in centrally, shouldnt try and develop that side of his game, didnt have it in him, should stick out to the left. He was just a "Ronaldo Wannabe", many on here were saying.

OK it wasnt a blink of an eye. But it wasnt 5 years ago either. There was a definite lag between his maturing as a player and getting any credit for it on here, which is 95% explained away by the fact he wasnt our player.
 
Clubs will fight hard for Bale and with Spurs not in the CL, I think it is the time to leave. He can chose from so many clubs so he's in a good position
 
Adebesi said:
I can see what Pocco is saying to be fair. It was only 2 seasons ago you could easily get held up for ridicule for suggesting Bale was a better prospect than Nani, with the Spurs player being written off as a one trick pony, like a slightly inferior version of Valencia. People were saying he was shit at coming in centrally, shouldnt try and develop that side of his game, didnt have it in him, should stick out to the left. He was just a "Ronaldo Wannabe", many on here were saying.

OK it wasnt a blink of an eye. But it wasnt 5 years ago either. There was a definite lag between his maturing as a player and getting any credit for it on here, which is 95% explained away by the fact he wasnt our player.
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Well, no, the majority didn't really say that it was laughable to suggest he wasn't potentially better than Nani, they (and I) laughed at suggestions that he was a better player at the time, because it was completely laughable. Nani had 10 goals and 18 assists in the PL that season, Bale had 7 goals and 2 assists.

Likewise with Valencia, nobody really argued that he was potentially better than him (maybe not to the extent we're seeing now, but you could never really fathom Bale getting so good at the same time Valencia got so shit), but at the time he certainly wasn't, seeing as as the time, Valencia was (close to being) the best winger in the PL.

You'll always get extremes but I think the majority acknowledged that Bale was younger than both of them and could in the future become better, but at the time he definitely was not better than either of them were and it was laughable to suggest he was.

* someone is definitely going to find a post where I say the total opposite to all this now :nervous:
 
I certainly cant be arsed to go digging and I dont know what you said specifically. But I think quite a considerable number of people were a bit less open minded about Bale's potential than you are being - in retrospect - above. Obviously you can always say someone might be better than someone else in the future, Cleverley might be better than Busquets in 3 years time, but we can pretty much agree to mock anyone who is predicting that today. My memory of it is that the comparison between Bale and Nani was held in similar regard. But it was never that laughable. As you said, one was younger, but you could tell 2 years ago he had the tools to be a great player.
 
Adebesi said:
I certainly cant be arsed to go digging and I dont know what you said specifically. But I think quite a considerable number of people were a bit less open minded about Bale's potential than you are being - in retrospect - above. Obviously you can always say someone might be better than someone else in the future, Cleverley might be better than Busquets in 3 years time, but we can pretty much agree to mock anyone who is predicting that today. My memory of it is that the comparison between Bale and Nani was held in similar regard. But it was never that laughable. As you said, one was younger, but you could tell 2 years ago he had the tools to be a great player.
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I've looked through myself, and really, it's these sort of posts that were laughed at/ridiculed:

Mickey said:
Bale shits over nani for me. Much more consistant, know what youre going to get out of him.
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newtonheathdave said:
I may have put it across what I wanted to say. Bale does not stand on the edge of the oppositions box with men spare and pass it straight to the opposition under no pressure what so ever. Bale is a more consistent performer where as Nani is very hit and miss.

Also see the chance Bale made for Crouch last night that Crouch missed. Bales putting crosses like that over all the time, its not his fault if the strikers are missing sitters
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These posts were made around a time where Nani had 32 goals/assists in 32 games, and Bale had around a third of that, if even. People went seriously fecking overboard about Bale back then. I said this myself:

Cina said:
Not yet? Mate, he'll never be in the same class as Ronaldo, that's just silly.

He most certainly can become world class though.
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Phew :)
 
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