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

He's too one dimensional for my liking for the kind of price LEvy would want. 40mil on a left sided Valencia who's less consistent isnt what i'd like us to do. He'l pretty much surely end up the better player than Valencia but Valencia and Bale as our wingers when people here have been crying out for more variation in attack would be poor. Why sign the likes of Kagawa and have strikers like RVP, Rooney, Hernandez, Welbeck along with CMs like Cleverley and Ando when we'd play 2 out and out hug the touchline wingers?
 
I don't understand how you can say Young is flopping big time. He had a decent return last season with 13 G & A in 24 games in the league for you which is a pretty decent return for someone who wouldn't be your first choice winger if everyone was available. This season he hasn't played as well but has Valencia either? No. Young is a player that cuts inside as we know he can score from distance, Bale can too but he's more dominant when he hugs the touchline and if you have Rooney/Cleverley/Anderson in the middle, he won't be needing to cut inside at all.

I didn't say that La Liga was poor. However, Kagawa has struggled a little bit with the physicality, Silva lost his way etc. I just don't see why you would need to get Isco when you have Kagawa to fill that void. If you need another winger it should be Bale in my view.

Valencia didn't play well but he was still better then Young. Young from this season is awfull, he wouldn't be nowhere near first XI if Kagawa was fit, and Nani doesn't have injury+contract issues. He had solid season at most last year, and that's just by looking his end product, his overall game wasn't good enough last year too.

Silva isn't at his best atm(eventough his recent form is quite good), but it's just matter of his form, he showed last season that he can do it in premiership too, in first half of the season he was best player in the league.
Kagawa did struggle, but not too much, against your team who is relying oh physicality(you are everton fan, right?) he was our best player, so physicality isn't too much of a problem when you are talented enough.
 
Bale would be an absolute steal at 25m, but there's no fekkin way Levy would let him go for less than 40m, which no doubt beyond our budget or at least norms of prudent spending. Isco might be a better buy in the mid teens and for all we know could be even more lethal than Bale within 2-3 seasons.

Forgetting price tag for a moment, would Bale be a massive upgrade from either Nani or Young? Of course he would. The man can whip in the cross or cut in for the shot. We need both.

There's still a useful role for Young with Bale on the squad. As for Nani, we all know his time is up. If we can get 15m for him from Juve we should consider ourselves fortunate and move on. The show, as they say, must go on!
 
would Bale be a massive upgrade from either Nani? Of course he would.

No, he wouldnt. Nani's comfortably the better player.

The man can whip in the cross or cut in for the shot. We need both.

He's much better doing the first and very frustrating and ineffective doing the second.

Had he been good at both, i'd have loved to have him here.

As he's just good at one, no thanks. It'd do us more harm than good at the prices Spurs would want.
 
Who will guarantee that Bale won't flop at United? What about Young, if there is one player who is proven in Premiership then it's him, and still he is flopping big time so far, he is nowhere near United quality judging by his performances for us.
Berbatov was also proven in Premiership, and eventough I'm big fan of Berba, he never justified his price, and yet Bale is even more expensive then those two.

"he isn't proven in Premiership" argument was proven wrong lots of times, La Liga isn't poor league by any means, and Isco is also doing very good in champions league too.

Really? If there was ONE player who you would call proven in the Premier League it would be Ashley Young?!

Bale is just miles better than Young. I consider him a better version of Valencia, personally. That's precisely why I don't want him here. We as it is spam the wide areas to death these days.
 
I didn't say that La Liga was poor. However, Kagawa has struggled a little bit with the physicality, Silva lost his way etc. I just don't see why you would need to get Isco when you have Kagawa to fill that void. If you need another winger it should be Bale in my view.

Kagawa is really not that much like Isco. They play in a similar position (or at least, they can), but their styles are very different. Kagawa excelled in Dortmund's transitional, counter-attacking style. He does things very quickly, and very efficiently. His job is not to pull the creative strings, but rather to be the one who turns general 'creative play' into goals, whether via an assist or a goal of his own. He doesn't dribble much except to get into the space - he's a lethal passer, not a possession passer. He can do this job from wide, but ideally he plays as a number 10.

Isco on the other hand is a typical creative inside-winger. He can do the job from central but he's better starting from a wider position. He's a dribbler, and benefits from being on the ball a lot. He's not necessarily the man to finish the moves, or to provide all the killer balls. Rather, he is the man who creates the move, who dribbles through the midfield, who gets to the dead ball line. His ideal role falls earlier in the play than Kagawa's.

If he was someone alongside Kagawa at Dortmund, Isco would be Gotze, or even Gundogan minus the defensive responsibilities.
 
No, he wouldnt. Nani's comfortably the better player.



He's much better doing the first and very frustrating and ineffective doing the second.

Had he been good at both, i'd have loved to have him here.

As he's just good at one, no thanks. It'd do us more harm than good at the prices Spurs would want.

You jest. Well done!

I'm not here to run down Nani, as he is unquestionably a very good footballer. But he works himself into dead ends far too often and is ridiculously inconsistent.

If you're making a training video on football skills, you go with Nani every time. But if you want a footballer who's a born winner and comes up big in big matches, you go with Bale every time.
 
You jest. Well done!

I'm not here to run down Nani, as he is unquestionably a very good footballer. But he works himself into dead ends far too often and is ridiculously inconsistent.

If you're making a training video on football skills, you go with Nani every time. But if you want a footballer who's a born winner and comes up big in big matches, you go with Bale every time.

Are you sure? You did it quite a lot in the nubbies.

Your last paragraph is retarded.
 
I actually went to the Young thread to check this, and you're (sort of) right! People were very excited about him when he arrived it seems, oh how things change.

The ones who actually thought he was better than Nani gave me the impression they had played him on Fifa but not really watched him much. They made out like he had Valencia's pace for a start
 
No, he wouldnt. Nani's comfortably the better player.



He's much better doing the first and very frustrating and ineffective doing the second.

Had he been good at both, i'd have loved to have him here.

As he's just good at one, no thanks. It'd do us more harm than good at the prices Spurs would want.

But I do agree with you on one point: whatever price Spurs would want for Bale is well above any price we should pay for him. Sot it's a no-go for Bale, whatever the reason might be.

Better to go with Isco or Rodriguez. Nani needs, for the good of his own career, to move to another club. And we need an upgrade from Young, who's a decent backup winger but not someone I would want starting in a CL semifinal.
 
Are you sure? You did it quite a lot in the nubbies.

Your last paragraph is retarded.

Not if you read my posts carefully. I have always maintained that Nani has outstanding ability, but what cuts him short of greatness is his ridiculous inconsistency. I hate inconsistency, primarily because it upsets team balance in important matches. At least when Rooney is inconsistent you still know he's capable of magic in the 89th minute. That has never been the case with Nani. He many times has Fergie dropped Nani from big games altogether? I don't have the number, but it's a big number.

As for the last point, only a retard would fail to comprehend that while Nani has the better skills, Bale puts his skills to better use in big matches. Look at what Bale did to us this season. Look at what Bale did to Inter. (Look at what Bale did to Scotland.) Neither are shit clubs and both were massive games. Bale showed up big. Meanwhile, Nani is whining about not getting a contract that he's done nothing to deserve. Nani is a great player, but if both were available on equal terms in the open market, it's not even a close call as to who Fergie would go with.
 
Nani doesn't do it in big games, he's incapable of moments of magic out of nothing, he's definitely whining over a new contract, FACHT. Bale is more consistent than him.

I mean look, the fact that you were able to name an entire three "big" games for Bale speaks for itself really. I can't compare with that at all.

Wales vs Scotland, clash of the titans!
 
Nani doesn't do it in big games, he's incapable of moments of magic out of nothing, he's definitely whining over a new contract, FACHT. Bale is more consistent than him.

I mean look, the fact that you were able to name an entire three "big" games for Bale speaks for itself really. I can't compare with that at all.

Wales vs Scotland, clash of the titans!

Was an important match and Bale was superb. Ronaldo used to get bashed with flat track bully stuff. He can only produce against who he faces to be fair. In an ideal world Bale would upgrade Young and Nani signs and buckles down as he is awesome on his day.
 
In the next season or two he'll move into 20 goal a season bracket. Anyone who has been watching him carefully will surely agree. He's becoming more and more of a goal threat. He could easily have had a hat-trick yesterday. For some reason it's not popular to rate him around here, but at the end of the day goals win games and he is going to be scoring more and more of them over the next few years and they aren't tap ins either. He's making match winning contributions.

He's going to move to a different level, one that the likes of Giggs, Pires, Overmars, Gerrard or even Lampard never reached. People can find all sorts of reasons to criticize him, but the way he can shift and shoot with such venom is going to mean than over the next year or two he'll become lethal. People mock and laugh at how him tries to play like Ronaldo, but he really does have a lot of similarities. I doubt he'll get close to Ronaldo levels, as lets' face only a few players in history have. But other than Ronaldo, I think he'll become the most effective Prem attacking midfielder to date.

There will be plenty of players who have more skill, better close control, far better vision and so on. But Bale will have more of a say on what the final score is in games than any of them, as I think he's got all the assets to score great goals on his own, on a consistent basis.
 
You jest. Well done!

I'm not here to run down Nani, as he is unquestionably a very good footballer. But he works himself into dead ends far too often and is ridiculously inconsistent.

If you're making a training video on football skills, you go with Nani every time. But if you want a footballer who's a born winner and comes up big in big matches, you go with Bale every time.

Born winner? Whats that supposed to mean when it comes to bale and how did you get to that conclusion? How many big games has Bale "come up big" at?

As great a viewing it made, i never got the hype around the Inter performance. It was very good to see but the situation of the game has to be taken into account imo when judging a performance.



In the next season or two he'll move into 20 goal a season bracket. Anyone who has been watching him carefully will surely agree. He's becoming more and more of a goal threat. He could easily have had a hat-trick yesterday. For some reason it's not popular to rate him around here, but at the end of the day goals win games and he is going to be scoring more and more of them over the next few years and they aren't tap ins either. He's making match winning contributions.

He's going to move to a different level, one that the likes of Giggs, Pires, Overmars, Gerrard or even Lampard never reached. People can find all sorts of reasons to criticize him, but the way he can shift and shoot with such venom is going to mean than over the next year or two he'll become lethal. People mock and laugh at how him tries to play like Ronaldo, but he really does have a lot of similarities. I doubt he'll get close to Ronaldo levels, as lets' face only a few players in history have. But other than Ronaldo, I think he'll become the most effective Prem attacking midfielder to date.

There will be plenty of players who have more skill, better close control, far better vision and so on. But Bale will have more of a say on what the final score is in games than any of them, as I think he's got all the assets to score great goals on his own, on a consistent basis.

Some very very high praise there. Blows my mind.

I'l be absolutely shocked if Bale becomes as good as you say he will. And am someone who thinks he's a good player who'l get better.
 
Was an important match and Bale was superb. Ronaldo used to get bashed with flat track bully stuff. He can only produce against who he faces to be fair. In an ideal world Bale would upgrade Young and Nani signs and buckles down as he is awesome on his day.

Yet he's not had great performances consistently or in good numbers.
 
To argue that Nani is inconsistent whereas Bale is consistent is just laughable! Bale is arguably the most inconsistent good winger I know of, certainly more so than Nani. Sure, he scores some goals, but how many attacks does he squander because he shoots at first chance?

If Nani had shot half as often, wasting half as many attacks, he too would have more goals, but we would go mad in here, giving those bulls in Pamplona a run for their money!
 
Bale would be more consistent if he relied solely on what he has and stopped kidding himself into thinking he's a Ronaldo type player. You can pin you ears and style your hair anyway you like Gareth, you're not an inside forward.
 
Yeah, I really don't get this inside forward/free role attacking midfielder experiment that's going on with Bale. He was a much better as a winger IMO. And he still got goals. He's a pretty good finisher, he'll always get you goals. On the other hand, he simply doesn't have the close control to play make so I'm not sure what purpose all of it serves.
 
Bale is a more direct, pacy version of Valencia. I can see Fergie wanting this. We splashed £17m on Young with a year left.
 
Bale is a more direct, pacy version of Valencia. I can see Fergie wanting this. We splashed £17m on Young with a year left.

With Levy and Spurs, Bale would be valued at 50 million. feck that, Bale is an option for people who only watch the Premier League.
 
Bale is a more direct, pacy version of Valencia. I can see Fergie wanting this. We splashed £17m on Young with a year left.

Pacier. Valencia is very quick himself. What Bale really has over Valencia, though, is that, IMO, he is less one dimensional. Valencia is basically a get a few yards on his defender and cross player whereas Bale provides a big goal threat as well and is better at coming inside. Although, he isn't good enough at it to be playing the way he is right now.

Personally, I wouldn't want both at United.
 
To argue that Nani is inconsistent whereas Bale is consistent is just laughable! Bale is arguably the most inconsistent good winger I know of, certainly more so than Nani. Sure, he scores some goals, but how many attacks does he squander because he shoots at first chance?

If Nani had shot half as often, wasting half as many attacks, he too would have more goals, but we would go mad in here, giving those bulls in Pamplona a run for their money!

You could say the same about Ronaldo.

Anyway that's very harsh on Bale, as so often he makes his own shooting chances.

Using real world examples, which of his shots yesterday do you think he shouldn't have taken on? What about last week against Arsenal? AVB set up in a way that made Bale totally ineffective, but he still scored a great goal and had another shot. I can't see why he shouldn't have taken either opportunity on. The same is true of yesterday. I thought he made the right choice to shoot as much as any other player.

If he is so wasteful with his shooting how come he makes more chances per game for other players than anyone in our squad?

I think most of the criticisms aimed at him are more theoretical than based on what actually happens in games. He's just getting better and better, but there seems to be a reluctance to accept it among our fans for some reason.

If Bale were at Utd next season, I think he'd create more than anyone else in our squad and score around 20 goals from midfield, which is something we've never had, despite having some of the best midfielders in Prem history.
 
If Bale were at Utd next season, I think he'd create more than anyone else in our squad and score around 20 goals from midfield, which is something we've never had, despite having some of the best midfielders in Prem history.

ronaldo14.jpg


In this season he was every bit as much of a "midfielder" as Bale and was quite clearly our biggest creator. Talk about going overboard with the Bale hype.
 
Sorry forgot to say apart from Ronaldo, as I'd already mentioned him in a previous post.
 
You jest. Well done!

I'm not here to run down Nani, as he is unquestionably a very good footballer. But he works himself into dead ends far too often and is ridiculously inconsistent.

If you're making a training video on football skills, you go with Nani every time. But if you want a footballer who's a born winner and comes up big in big matches, you go with Bale every time.

When were these big matches that Bale came up big in and proved he's a born winner?
 
The game vs Scotland :lol:

Oh aye, I forgot that one. Surely has sealed his place in the football hall of fame there.

It'll go down in folklore. Many years from now people will be asking you "Where were you when Bale dived for a penalty and then scored from long range against Scotland".
 
The game against Inter? Oh wait they lost that one.
The Scotland game? Scotland. Enough said. He had to dive for one of them.
 
In Spurs run in 2009/10 Bale scored key goals and was MOTM against both Cheslea and Arsenal. These were huge games for Spurs.

He also scored a key goal in Spurs away win at the Emirates the following season.

I don't think there are many players who would have held the nerve and finished the way he did against us last month.

But as has been pointed out, he can do great things and still not be on the winning side, as Spurs aren't top class. He scored a hat-trick against Inter and still lost. Last week he scored a great goal against Arsenal, but there wasn't much he could do about the score. He scored a brilliant equalizer away at City last season. He also scored against Chelsea last season. He really isn't a player who just bullies the lesser teams. He scores important and often great goals against the best sides. He's definitely not the kind of player who can't handle the pressure when playing at the highest level.
 
He's also definitely not a player who relishes the big games.

Bale's record against Arsenal, City, Chelsea, United and Liverpool last year: 10 starts (0 subs), 2 goals, 1 assist.

Rooney's record against Arsenal, City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool last year: 11 appearances (1 sub), 12 goals, 1 assist.
 
Last week he scored a great goal against Arsenal, but there wasn't much he could do about the score.
He scored a consolation goal after being anonymous for practically the whole game (Sagna pretty much played him out of the game), Same story as last season when his contribution was a dive to get a pen (I think that's the one assist in Brwned's list above).
 
He's also definitely not a player who relishes the big games.


He's only scored 27 Prem goals to date and 8 of them have been against the teams you mention. So, so far in his career he's actually been more likely to score against the big teams.
 
He scored a consolation goal after being anonymous for practically the whole game (Sagna pretty much played him out of the game), Same story as last season when his contribution was a dive to get a pen (I think that's the one assist in Brwned's list above).

He's started 8 Prem games against you and scored in 4 of them. I don't think you can really criticize his contribution. And it's not as if your defence weren't trying against him last week or that his team had as many players on the pitch. He got chance and scored a quality goal.