Gareth Bale

How does he do it? There are other players in that liminal 'wide player' non-category between wing-back and winger who seem to have similar qualities eg Taiwo, Vargas -- it's scarcely a novel idea to have explosive running power on the flanks, but Bale already is way outstripping that echelon of players.....his productivity is at the level of someone like Malouda or Krasic, yet they tend to play further forward.

The way Bale plays now is really anomalous, almost a hybrid of Valencia and Cristiano Ronaldo....byline crosses but rare sangfroid and prodigious finishing.

The paradox is that you wonder if he would be ~less~ effective as a true wing-forward, because whilst his technical level is a little above Krasic/Valencia, he isn't exceptionally skilful; he has fantastic shooting technique (similar to Gerrard) but he doesn't have the tricksiness of Robinho, Nani et al or exceptional close control like Pedro, Nasri - perhaps to be expected given his size. There's a suggestion he'll always need a little space in front of him to be most effective, not that he can't deceive with feints or cut inside but he needs the ~threat~ of overpowering a full-back down the flank to induce the necessary consternation.

It's unlikely Tottenham can keep him for more than another season, but what happens if he ends up at a top-tier side? In Italy or Spain you suspect he would be indulged as a nominal fullback but with greater license than he'd get here. The depressing prospect of a £40m move to City would probably see him preserved as a quasi-winger. Though I guess he's the most ~complete~ prospect to emerge in a while and there's the possibility that some enterprising manager will try to convert him to a more central position, it's not difficult to imagine a 25 yr old Bale doing most of what Gerrard did in his best days playing behind Torres.

he has another gear of pace that lets him lift his head as if he's jogging when fullbacks are sprinting to keep up.

his control of the ball at full pace is also exceptional

what's the opposite of cunted? cocked?
http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

i believe pro evo was first here..."he dicks it in"

anyway, he's no wilshere

A few hacks have said ~deceptively fast~ which is one of those curious codewords usually applied to players who aren't really fast, but aren't not-fast. Bale doesn't have amazing first-step speed, though his power makes up for it, and once on his way he just keeps accelerating. But his athletic qualities aren't ~that~ rare tbrr. I'm not sure about exceptional close control either, when he's at full-pace it's more about making sure the penultimate touch is perfectly weighted for the pass/shot, and he's very effective there (unlike Lennon, say).

coutinho was more wowing in the last game, bale is obv more advanced in his career but hard to say where he'll go from here.

There's a suggestion he'll always need a little space in front of him to be most effective, not that he can't deceive with feints or cut inside but he needs the ~threat~ of overpowering a full-back down the flank to induce the necessary consternation

nicely put.

think you're selling bale's touch short. and his acceleration is good, but his legs-stretching pace is exceptional i think.

Maybe I underrate him there cuz his endurance is kinda amazing.....can burn through defences even in injury time. And his control at speed is good....it's different for powerful, explosive 6'+ players, irl they're never going to have Messi level touch. But within that category he's not quite as poised as say Torres or Balotelli, and I'd expect someone like Alves would cause him problems.

he'd cause alves as many, tho. rate maicon as better than alves.

he has a willowy whip quality that most full/wing backs dont, compare his lithe crossing to the passive aggressive tension of ashley cole whacking it every time.

There was something amiss with Maicon tonight....anyway I can imagine Bale coming unstuck against a smaller, nimbler, technical full-back who can just nick possession off his toes, kinda like Ronaldo found Ashley Cole. There aren't a lot of great right-backs around though so Bale is def going to be 'tearing some new a-hole' in the 2k10s.

the passive aggressive tension of ashley cole whacking it every time

LJ doesn't have a display name right now does he?

.anyway I can imagine Bale coming unstuck against a smaller, nimbler, technical full-back who can just nick possession off his toes,

yeah, a 'defender's' right back that tackles him early akes him work p neville was prob on the other side of legal in dealing with him lately imo, but he kept him quiet by sticking to him and snapping early at him.

Has he played against Ivanovic yet?

ha

one or t'other dont finish that game imo

Ivanovic in third round with TKO

LJ doesn't have a display name right now does he?

hmph

the nation's least favourite right back

gareth bale

the point about the quality of bale's crossing is quite true...like to be fair, you see huge volumes of those low crosses where the commentator is all "just needed a touch" or whatever, but not actually a huge amount where someone scores.

he picks his man, look at those two balls in tonight

Has any player gone from laughing stock to world class so quickly? I still considered him a busted flush back in January and then suddenly woah.

never considered him laughing stock tbh. misused and injured.

The 'Bale curse' thing was a bit freaky. I knew he was better than that but didn't suspect he'd ever get this good.

http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

Nice contrast between the sublime weight/trajectory of the delivery and the scrappy conversion.....Bale reverts to spectator as soon as it leaves it foot, just ~inviting~ Crouch to try and find some way to fuck up a cross that good.

Crouch did quite well there with his movement imho

but then he knew *exactly* what sort of ball he'd be getting I suppose, which is Bale's genius

crouch did well for that goal, but still not good enough tonight again.

As of last season I would have said Vargas > Bale although I haven't seen Viola this season and I guess he/they suck now?

he'd cause alves as many, tho. rate maicon as better than alves.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:03 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw maicon has been dropped from the brazil team because he has been out of sorts since the start of the world cup (classic goal excepted). only nakh seems to have been thinking in terms of form opposition and trying not to overrate bale's game.

I really do like watching this guy play. He's a bit of a mix between Kuyt and Ronaldo (minus step overs) imo with maybe a bit of Pires thrown in. Everything about his game, or when I've seen him in the past year is about being effective - there is nothing indulgent in his game at all. Cannot wait to see him in front of a left back who isn't a liability.

Also take a moment to think about the Welsh midfield in 5 years.

Ledley* Collison** Ramsey Bale

maybe more exciting than

Johnson Rodwell Wilshere Walcott

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update.
**when he leaves WHU and joins a proper team - would love to see him in the last years of Fergie tbrr.

OFF TOPIC but all i could notice in this gif is his dick flopping everywhere -- dude needs to strap that thing down imo

http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

awesome at football, hasn't yet been accused of rape* and has a large penis - poor boy has it too hard.

*will come eventually, this week it was klasnic.

that's not his willy, it's jermain defoe

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update

Jury still out on Joe Ledley in Scotland - he's had to play a few games at left back (where he dropped no major clangers that I recall) since Neil Lennon didn't believe us all when we said Charlie Mulgrew was gash. Signing an actual real left back and injuries to Scott Brown and Beram Kayal have seen him playing midfield again and forming what looks like a decent partnership with Ki Sung Yung, but no idea how long that'll last when the other two come back. I don't think Scottish football will ruin him so much as signing for a team with 8 zillion midfield options though.

There you go. You can go back to talking about Gareth Bale now.

Ledley has never impressed outside of one or two performances imo. Not impressing still puts him ahead of a lot of the squad, but I still wouldn't say he's looked like anything to write home about.

Also take a moment to think about the Welsh midfield in 5 years.

Ledley* Collison** Ramsey Bale

maybe more exciting than

Johnson Rodwell Wilshere Walcott

imo.

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update.
**when he leaves WHU and joins a proper team - would love to see him in the last years of Fergie tbrr.

― gazza bale flame (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 06:45 (4 hours ago)

Those players are technically good enough (Ledley excepted) that they might not have to play 4-4-2....

Jordan Henderson also looks interesting.

Take Bale out of that Wales midfield and it ain't all that.

is Henderson Welsh? Well him instead of Ledley makes that even better.

Ramsey > Bale tyvm

And I overlooked in the op how dangerous Bale could be on the right flank cutting inside. Not sure if he's played there yet?

david noble, thudd

No Henderson is English.....but Rodwell/Henderson/Wilshere is a promising midfield.

ramsey is not better than bale...for god's sake.

Well now he's broken, sure. But those two months he ran the Arsenal midfield when Cesc was out > Wilshere tbh, and Wilshere > Bale.

Nordtveit > Lúcio > Djourou > Piqué

why do you even say this rubbish...do you think it's a global conspiracy that bale is getting huge attention for his recent performances and nothing of the kind happened ramsey during that time? ramsey isn't even guaranteed to be a top player yet...

In fairness, Phil Neville shut Bale out of the game completely the other week.

i agree bale is overhyped...it's actually pretty annoying. but i think he's done far more to deserve hype than aaron ramsey.

I asked a couple of Welsh guys about Ramsay/Bale a year or so ago, and they all said Ramsay was much the better. So we'll see.

Bale is an exciting player, at the moment against certain teams who aren't used to playing against him, leastways.

But to be talked of in terms of world class is ridiculous. He's not even the best left-sided player in the Premier League. Patrick Barclay tweeted last night that he was the second best player in the world after Xavi. That's ridiculous.

Be interested to see how Chelsea deal with him: try Boswinga and go pace against pace, or get Ivan to kick him early and kick him good.

When you think about it Aaron Ramsey is basically a poor man's Justin Edinburgh.

Rafael shut Bale out of the game pretty effectively on Saturday and Rafael is no Maicon. But he's very difficult to play against all the same, but yeah Malouda > Bale for now.

Bale is just pure adrenalin though. Got to like that, grudgingly.

bale a year ago? Well, nothing's changed since then, definitely.

Wilshere's looked good lately, but not as good as bale imo. But at least it's not nonsense to call that one, one way or the other. Ramsay was better than injured, unconfident and out of position bale- so was koncheskey ffs

I think the interesting thing is whether the success of Walcott and the emergence of Bale indicates Clive Woodward's spell at Southmapotn FC was a success, and whether any other teams would be wise to bring him back in.

ramsey has done v little/nothing yet in his career. bale has done not a huge amount but has had two huge performances in big high profile games...as i said, it's overhyped but ramsey will get the same treatment when he rips inter milan apart over two games as well, on the back of a stretch of v v good form.

walcott never developed as a footballer at all at southampton, famously so really. And you dont teach pace.

Bale at just gone 21 is as good as and possibly better than Cristiano Ronaldo was at just gone 21. Admittedly Ronaldo then shot off into the distance straight after the 2006 World Cup.

Wilshere is the most interesting of these players, will start a thread about him later if someone else doesn't. Bale may be hyped but he's already proven himself to be at least a very good player.

Cristiano Ronaldo at 21 led Portugal to a world cup semi-final....no comparison there.

And you dont teach pace.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 12:44 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

First yard is in the head, that's something you can teach.

Yeah but that was sort of the making of him. Obviously Bale isn't anywhere near the quality of post-06 Ronaldo but at this stage of his development he's getting close to pre-WC2006 Ronaldo. And Ronaldo had several more years of regular Premiership football under his belt.

NB I do not actually think Bale will ever be THAT good, given how superhuman Ronaldo's development was after he hit 21.

not to aaron lennon

not usually one to cosign ahh's wild claims but ramsey really is (was, whatever) a terrific footballer and has been ignorantly dismissed here.

Not as good as Bale though. And not really comparable either.

I'm not saying he's not good, just has in no way done enough to be pronounced as better than a first team cl player...

this thread has gone fucking nuts today. yes i obviously believe that it is some conspiracy when people have opinions different to my own ronan. and not because bale has spent most of his career so far (up until about six months ago) looking like a liability who is still often shut out of games by mediocre players (see: rafael at the weekend). woohoo he scored a hatrick against inter when they'd fallen asleep after spurs (incl. bale) were so shiiiit they won the game after like 5 min.

Bale is one of the twenty best left wingers in the world and may one day be the best. But to say he is as good as one of the ten best players of my lifetime like Ronaldo at a similar age is wrong, to live and breathe as Paddy Barcley is even worse.

He still needs to work on his all-round game and being involved for 90 minutes every week. This is where I think Ramsey has the punch on him. Both can defend, both can score beautiful goals and perplex an opposition midfield but Bale relies on VDV or Modric to do the hard graft for a lot of the time while he waits for the opening. Like I said upthread, he reminds me of Pires a lot in this way. (And sure, as he gets more experience and has to spend more time in front of someone like BAE - this will dramatically improve; Pires could get away with it because he had Vieira next to him and Cole behind him). Ramsey has better concentration and better teamwork skills to go with his other abilities.

You are taking it as if I am saying Bale is a bad player or something and I'm really not. I don't believe either are yet World Class but both can get there very quick. Bale is certainly a joy to watch atm and if he keeps improving at this rapid rate then he could be one of the best of his gen.

(Ramsey was a first team CL player! Long before Bale and earlier in life! And then he was Shawcrossed! And I guess Rosicky getting back to full fitness instead of retiring in his recovery didn't help.)

'ignorantly dismissed' how? Pointing out that bale was a shadow of himself a year ago hardly counts as that, i hope, and i don't know that anyone else was much harsher.

Also don't know if regular first team CL player means anything considering it wasn't long ago Lucas was one?

wasnt any good tho?

I don't even believe you believe yourself tbh.

Welsh guys told me Ramsay would be better than Giggs, while Bale was more like a Welsh SWP so but to be honest, I don't think either of them are all that special yet. Still, I've double-winning standards to maintain and am hard to please.

But to say he is as good as one of the ten best players of my lifetime like Ronaldo at a similar age is wrong

Ronaldo at a similar age (before the 2006 World Cup at any rate) wasn't actually one of the ten best players of your or anyone else's lifetime. He got a lot better very very quickly but he was a classic "needs to work on his end product" player for several years.

bale is almost as good as a onefooted ronaldo

Gareth Bale's spectacular performance yesterday was a superb smokescreen for the fact Spurs' other players largely also had superb games

Just give bale his moment, he has impressed on the pitch beyond doubt, not just in the inter games but last season too. It's just needless one eyed stuff to insist an injured player who plays in a diff position anyway, is "better". Ramsey may well be world class in his own time.

Oh I just saw the Lucas bit. Lucas is actually prob one of the best young holding midfielders in the world and proof of how underrated Rafa was in the transfer market.

SWP is the most ridiculous name to have come up so far.

I don't even think Bale is the best player in the Spurs squad fwiw.

xp Yeah but he doesn't play like a proper Brazilian.

Modric >> Bale

Modric >>>>> Ramsey

correct

lucas better than them all obviously,

pacheco better than modric tbf

Lucas > Modric > Bale > Ramsey > Wilshere > Malouda (doesn't understand "passion")

Ivanovic would eat the lot of them.

I quite like Lucas.

quite like him myself but this 'he's a great player you just dont know football' is bollocks imo. He's doesn't do anything well enough to deserve mention yet, and if he has talent he's not yet shown a sustained ability to prove it at liverpool.

malouda is brilliant, wouldnt compare him with bale- dont think he's a winger, he's the left man in a front three at his best. But he's awesome. If bale can get to his level of effectiveness this past year he'll be a real player

says a lot about malouda that he endured a difficult start after arriving with so much hype and fought his way up to playing at such a high level. good thing liverpool didn't win that transfer battle, rafa prob would have ended his career.

malouda and drogba both, and maybe mikel- he's been much improved this season

It's been quite a common feature for Chelsea signings to take a while to get going - I can think of it happening with Drogba, Malouda, Mikel, Essien, Zhirkov, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Anelka and perhaps Kalou. Think this will also be the case with Ramires, who has already been written off by fans with shorter memories.

Just about the only player to hit the ground running in the last few years has been Boswinga. Deco started and finished brightly, but was shit in between.

Arsenal players, with the possible exception of Nasri, seem to make a massive initial impact, which makes it all the more noticeable when some of them start to tail off (Vermaelan, Clichy, Arshavin, Eboue, Reyes).

liverpool signings tend to play at a fairly consistent level from the time they join till their transfer to bursapor.

AKA Doing A Ballack

Yeah struggling to think of many recent Chelsea players who made an immediate impact... Anelka maybe?

Took Anelka a while, was used badly by Grant and possibly Scolari (although he scored under Scolari). Certainly wasn't playing anywhere near as expansively as he has under Hiddink/Ancelloti.

A lot of this is to do with the fact we had two shit managers in a row (Grant/Scolari) who couldn't get the best out of anybody.

Alex and Boswinga are possibly the exceptions.

essien took off very well for a central midfielder, i thought?

duff was good quite quickly for chelsea...carvalho?

Essien was typical actually, excellent first few games then went off the pace badly (very much tied to his two awful tackles v Bolton and Liverpool). Took him a while to get his mojo back.

Hadn't really counted those that had been and gone, in which case the key evidence against is Robben, who was incredible for the first three months and then never quite hit those heights again, and when he did, Wes Brown would kick him.

Anyway, back to Bale, one thing that people used to talk about a lot was his skill with a dead ball, and I remember a couple of amazing free kicks in his early days but not much since.

Anyway, back to Lucas - I like him too. It pained me to see them trying to punt him to Stoke in the last window.

bale's free kicks are taken by vdv, kranjcar, modric amd bae! These days. Not sure why.

Also we simply dont ever get any in that area, dont ask me why. Game against everton lately case in point.

http://twitter.com/landondonovan/status/29521618232#

:DDDDDDD

blue horseshoe love anacott steel

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03112010/58/champions-league-bale-orders-taxi-maicon.html

102 players have more assists in the Premier League than Gareth Bale this season. He has 0. Alex Song more goals too. Hmm.

unfair. Stats also show he's created more chances than any other players, but our strikers have been terrible.

where do you get your stats from? been using this
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=77653&cc=5739

football365 had it in one of their geekstats columns a week ago iirc, caught my eye.

He's also scored and set up a few in europe i think no stats to hand tho

would be interested in seeing that if you can track it down

not on my phone i cant, but will see later on.

Crouch has been awful this year so far, despite a good assists tally for vdv. I think pav would have filled his boots from bale deliveries by now

Yeah, I'd be interested in that too. If your team has fifteen chances on target and ten off-target, it's nice to be able to see who's setting up those twentyfive chances, rather than just who rolled a ball across for a last minute two-yard in-off-the-arse chance ten minutes after your lazy profligate striker has finally been hooked. Or something.

xpost

letters page in f365 confirms stat, fyi.

Easier to define an assist than the creation of a chance, i suppose ailsa

Aye, I know, but if you can count chances, you can count up who creates them, surely.

Would actually really like a stat to prove rubbishness of wingers' decision-making (i.e. the Aiden McGeady/Giorgio Samaras statistic) , but that's not actually possibly.

only by watching, really. Lennon's regressed quite a bit since his injury but at least he was taking guys on the last night again.

McGeady - having seen the first half last night, I endorse everything anyone's said about him in the last three or four years.

http://www.studs-up.com/comics/2010-11-04.jpg

anti-semite there

antisemite sam

A+

its bounced nicely and i've only just hit it and it's gone straight in innit

Inter Coach Rafa Benitez has likened Tottenham wing-back Gareth Bale to a Ferrari while comparing his defenders to Volvos.

The Wales international once again ripped Inter apart, this time at White Hart Lane, inspiring Spurs to a historic 3-1 victory.

“We have played many times against Bale,” Benitez said. “We know that he is quick and difficult to mark.

“It's not a question of the wide players covering him, but the problem was that we were losing.

“We needed to attack and when we lost the ball, Bale was quicker in the space and it was tough to contain him above all because he concentrated on the flanks.

“If I drive a Volvo against a Ferrari on a straight, I lose. The Volvo is a good car because it's our sponsor, but the Ferrari races faster.

“It's not a question of help from the wide players. Coutinho and Biabiany have worked a lot to improve in defence and I am happy with them, but they always have a defensive mentality.”

benitez is an expert at not having good enough players, it seems.

someone should maybe let him know that he TOOK OVER THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS and this shit wont wash anymore.

He didn't say he didn't have enough players, did he?

The Volvo is a good car because it's our sponsor, but the Ferrari races faster

This is awesome though.

i especially like
but the problem was that we were losing

he's certainly saying that he didnt have good players, matt.

Coutinho and Biabiany have worked a lot to improve in defence and I am happy with them, but they always have a defensive mentality.

That ought to read defensive I suppose. Enjoying this newly verbose and relatively laissez-faire Benitez, he needed a change of scene.

~~offensive~~

James Lawton wrote a whole shitty article about Rafa's lack of grace towards Bale too.........

just towards bale? That's micromanaging the issue imo

Maybe now Rafa is in Italy he's not giving press conferences in English, so the journalists are running what he says through Google Translate from Spanish to Italian to English, ending up with the sugar mountain volvo nonsense, but what he actually says is perfectly regular "the boy done well" platitudes?

Anyway onto more pressing concerns, which Bolton player do we think will break Bale's leg tomorrow?

love that rafa is an injury to the v. injury prone eto'o away from taking almost unbeatable triple winners to a team that cannot win anything in a season. i mean this is the most otm statement ever:

someone should maybe let him know that he TOOK OVER THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS and this shit wont wash anymore.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Friday, 5 November 2010 16:23 (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

srs moratti must be kicking himself in the balls. even moreso knowing zlatan will win ac the league.

paul robinson.

can only be paul robinson

will run from the left side to the right, pushing zat and gary to their arses just to do it.

antisemite sam

oh, good work

he just said bale was faster than his players...

you just gotta spoil everything...

fuckin have that

cool

he doesn't seem to be a complete bastard either

news made mention of cl performances, do we know is that meant to be a consideration tho?

Cos if not, hooray for unmerited awards

a lot more merited than giggs' pfa for being old

true for ya i guess

he did that one volley on like the first day of the season, that'll do.

http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp290/hammy106/Bale-Goal-v-Stoke.gif

also scored with his face in the same match

http://www.gifsoup.com/view1/1334932/gareth-bale-merkage-o.gif

seems nonsensical tbh.

i def agree, don't see how he won this. hope modric wins the spurs player of the year.

aye, not even the best player in a team that probably won't finish top four. usually i think pfa results are decent too. players having more of an eye for the less glamorous work.

u madd doggie

What about the team of the season? Would Bale make the XI?

I'd maybe float Cech for Van Der Sar and Baines for Cole. Modric for Wilshire? Parker for Nasri? Has Sagna really been any good? And WHITHER TORRES?!?

PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM OF THE YEAR: Edwin Van Der Sar (Manchester United), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Nani (Manchester United), Samir Nasri (Arsenal), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal), Gareth Bale (Tottenham), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United).

Front six is great, defence has a "can't be arsed" feel to it. Would put Hart in over VDS, Ivanovic or Rafael over Sagna, and yeah Baines over Cole.

           Van Der Sar
Sagna   Cahill   Kompany  Baines
       Wilshere  Modric
Nasri       Silva          Nani
            Tevez
Subs: Schwarzer, Vidic, Ivanovic, Modric, Adam, Berbatov, Odemwingie or Ba

imo.

I think there's some sort of unwritten rule that the team of the season has to be 442. Tradition and that.

ok replace silva with odemwingie.

Odemwingie has been great but going for him over Berbatov or even Hernandez is str8 challops.

no sagna, i like ivanovic meself

Bardsley maybe

Midfield ridic lightweight tbf

2-3-5 for team of the season please xp, I'll have no truck with these modern fads. It's not like they have to play anyone for real anyway - if they did, the official team of the season would get raked through midfield.

Don't rate Sagna, but Ivanovic not all that great this season either and mainly been at CB anyway.

Cech and Terry easily Chelsea's best and most consistent performers. Cech should get POTY.

Wilshere and Lucas in the middle.

This is the OptaStats team. Hmmmm. Not sure about Foster and Clichy, and Essien has been shit. Funny old business.

B.Foster, B.Sagna, J.Terry, N.Vidic, G.Clichy, M.Essien, C.Adam, S.Nasri, Nani, C.Tevez, D.Berbatov. Elite.

I find opta's thing of ending all their tweets with a one word sentence perpetually amusing. Terse.

Clichy has been terrific.

Surprised Essien made it.

Has Essien been that bad? I would assume that was based on number of completed passes and successful tackles but the consensus seems to be that Essien is nowhere near the player he was.

He has been that bad, lots of misplaced passes and very few of his surging runs. A prime advocate among money to be sold.

But apparently Chelsea's win percentage is 20% without him and 63% with, which is a hell of a difference.

jose tried to make off with gareth in the middle of the game rather than waiting to make a bid this summer.

http://soccernet-assets.espn.go.com/design05/images/2011/0413/josemourinho,garethbale,harryreknapp20110413_275x155.jpg

I find opta's thing of ending all their tweets with a one word sentence perpetually amusing. Terse.

― Number None, Monday, 18 April 2011 13:45 (7 hours ago) Bookmark

you must be bloody joking. that cunt sam lyon on the bbc liveblog had me foaming at the mouth with this bullshit on sunday.

Angry.

lolling at this, from me, upthread:

Ledley has never impressed outside of one or two performances imo. Not impressing still puts him ahead of a lot of the squad, but I still wouldn't say he's looked like anything to write home about.

changed my opinion totally. have i told you ledley that i love you?

niiice

opta one word conclusions curdle my blood

Bloodcurdling.

suggestbanning.

Bangtorights.

Has he played against Ivanovic yet?

― Terminal Boredoms (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:14 (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ha

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:15 (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one or t'other dont finish that game imo

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:15 (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ivanovic in third round with TKO

― Terminal Boredoms (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:16 (5 months ago) Bookmark

thought ivanovic coped pretty well

ya, he's a good player imo

.

"I don’t think that I’m as good a player as people say I am," Bale said, according to The Mirror.

"That’s what keeps me working hard - because I want to be the player that others say I am."

ha, nice

Good attitude, hope it keeps him at Spurs.

that's the attitude that makes him the best young player in the universe imo

http://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Neymar-300x180.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2011/3/19/1300559743335/Seamus-Coleman-celebrates-007.jpg

wot no naughton?

every time you say naughton, do you mean walker?

nah i'm subtly mocking gooners tbh but u spoiled it

sorry

http://tinypic.com/jadpgx.jpg

so subtle i dun even get it?

.....

even

it was because gooners like to throw in mentions of youth team nobodies, innit

so, if we sold bale, modric and defoe for a combined 85m in jan, what next for spurs?

who the fuck wants to buy defoe?

They could try Arsenal perhaps?

they might have to accept just modric and bale for £90m

defoe to qpr tbs tbs

They could try Arsenal perhaps?

― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Friday, 11 November 2011 15:23 (7 minutes ago)

...

would be a success imo

at this stage i'd be half interested in a mass auction of bale vdv modric et al just to see krancjar pienaar and thudd again

Yeah i know they're injured

i always forget pienaar is one of yours now

ya, tho i can't decide is he cover on left, right or for parker tbh.

Second string, in my head, reads l-r

krancjar, thudd, pienaar, nobody

Would quite like a backup rm obv

Sandro fit should be 1st xi but not for parker in current form so i dunno

is bentley still technically yours or did you get rid? re back up RM, or should that be back up to the back up RM?
Maybe Harry will do a Bale with Walker and shunt him forward?

true for walker, tho tbfttl he's actually doing ok at the df side of his job this past while. Still love corluka though.

Yeah bentley i suppose. Pity about that twat, worse than losing a talent through injury.

wait shouldn't pienaar be where nobody is and that would mean the space in the middle is sandro? normal back-up w/ potential to push dudes in the first xi imo.

Think everyone big will stay in the transfer window but by the summer it's Champions League or the break-up of this team.

modric will probably go whatever happens, maybe bale too

We totally should try and Sol Modders, whatever the price.

ya i think so, but this summer was good, chelsea will bid big and early and hopefully the other big boys took note too.

I don't think pienaar, vdv nor krancjar are up to scratch on the right tbh, not as first choice cover, certainly

I keep thinking I've accidentally clicked the same thread twice with this and the Bale thread.

walker surely xp

this will have been the bale thread surely

lolimo

bale to barca could work

guardiola is difficult to predict tho, last yr's third choice left back adriano was playing in some sort of roving attacking midfield role the other day

still uncertain why they havent made replacing puyol the #1 priority but whatever

I think Guardiola's position there is something like "it doesn't matter if we've got the ball."

they wanted to buy thiago silva but weren't prepared to pay what you have to pay to buy probably the best central defender in the world from silvio berlusconi

Is Thiago Silva really the best in the world right now? Doesn't seem right.

i'd think so

it's not a crowded field atm now the lúcio/nesta/ferdinand/samuel generation are on the way out

he hardly ever gets booked, so he's either really really good, or he just doesn't tackle anyone.

Mertesacker hardly ever gets booked ...

he is the third category of player who is too slow to get near enough to opponents to actually foul them

motherfuckers be bitchin bout bale talk in other threads just sayin

Pique/Silva would be a beast. Vidic a bit too old to invest in maybe. Pepe plays for the other guys. So... yeah, Thiago Silva I guess. Sahko? Hummels? One of these young upandcomers mayb be worth looking at. Either way, 'we have the ball a lot' and hoping puyol never retires is a tactic that will eventually get found out imo.

the latter part, sure

feel that bassong could rly do a job at barca tbrr

thiago silva is beautiful

I think Rami and Badstuber are better than Sakho and Hummels but it's probably too early to say.

One thing is certain, Gareth Bale is not among the world's elite central defenders.

Yeah but Barca are playing Mascherano there at the moment. They clearly don't care

I think he's been excellent at CB, was much better than Pique against Athletic Bilbao last weekend.

I didn't think he was that great tbh but i only had half an eye one the game. Also i hate him

id guess he needs to improve his instinct for finding space before playing as a goalscoring attacking mid/support striker 'on the reg' cuz it gets so much more congested playing there

but there aren't many players who have played that position in that way.....someone like julio baptista maybe...kaká had both the full-throttle athleticism and more classical #10 playmaking/dribbling skills

yaya touré can be played there quite effectively for 60-70mins before he stops being able to run

i thought ménez could be developed into that role but he seems to be more of a winger now

i hope it doesnt happen. but if it does, what happens to vdv? or are they going to play w/ 2 #10s?

Pretty sure the "fluidity" of the 3 in Tottenham's current 4-2-3-1 is Redknapp trying to circumvent a VDV hissy-fit about being played on the right.

idk but everything changes pretty quickly, just thinking in the longer term

the chances of him playing in a tottenham team managed by redknapp with rafael van der vaart in 2013 = ???

5%

vdv, bale, lennon and modders will all still be there tho imo

not even lennon tbh

sayin

that he's the best british player since scholes?

when you say 'since'

since, in time

cuz scholes died in july 2011

if you play "outstanding" backwards it says 'paul is dead i killed him'

was trying to think of an epl player that deserved european xi acknowledgement- and i'm not necessarily saying bale does- came up with vidic, imo, and van persie if it's a calendar year thing.

that it?

dont think id include any

vidic maybe

kompany? rvp?

oh wait you said van persie

silva/piqué, messi

pique not even as good as jonny evans iirc

that wasn't it at all

u were teamgerard in 2k7?

would take vidic over one of those guys in a rl centre back pairing, just to have the killer/player balance right

id try to disprove that old adage

It's like people think Barcelona graduate Pique would have been perfectly happy to have served as a backup to Ferdinand and Vidic back then

Fergie so stupid

ppl think that? even fitba fans?

lol cmon don't turn into of of 'them' you support a title winning club you don't ever reaally get to strop imo

piqué was one of the best dmids in spain at 20 y/o playing for zaragoza

hmmm, Fergie so stupid?

wth is anyone even arguing here

maybe Pique was the solution to Utd's midfield problems

oh

well

this is turnign into my kind of discussion

u need that modric kid in zagreb imo

Ballack was my dream signing back in the day

ballack was one of the ones, alright

before ballack, ronaldinho, tho tbf the kid you got instead turned out ok

It's Schweinsteiger now btw

hmmm

not sandro, modric no?

iiinteresting

i'm sure they're both very nice but this is dream territory

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2672360421_698d176bf4.jpg

look it's the Schweinsteigers arriving in sunny Manchester
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/81153539.jpg

now i'm dreaming

Piqué's been avowedly poor this season, hasn't he? Even read that Pep thought he needed to be dropped early on because that dangerous 'won everything already' contentment/lack of motivation was seeping into the side through him. I thought he could've closed down CRon on the first goal tonight too.

Otherwise let me reiterate 'wth is anyone even arguing here', why did this thread explode tonight? Also, jesus christ at Mme Schweini.

right now he is better at lw than am

for a kid who is usually described as modest and relatively unflashy, he does seem to be developing a more selfish and wilful tendency, so i can still see him playing centrally in the longer term

the best british players (apart from the actual best ie scholes) do tend to conform a force-of-nature type, gerrard is the best example and rooney when he is indulged, oxlade chamberlain is another of those players who 'could play anywhere' which usually means 'will play everywhere'

wenger has spoken of him as a future midfielder

i don't know how useful he could be centrally vs on the wing

i know it's a prestige thing that centre is the place to be, but he was never exactly starved on the wing.

on the right, he's not as good, because while he can cut inside or go round on the left to equal effect while only using his left, his right isn't good enough to give him two options when he plays on that wing.

his drive could be useful in the centre a la gerrard, i guess, but then gerrard brings a lot more physical relish to that position also, and a bit more 'engine room' style rather than bale's swashbuckle.

arry all but aadmitted today it's so he can play vdv and bale together, but tbh i'd rather vdv adebayor up front and leave the rw empty than lose the BAE/Bale/Modric axis of awesome from the left in this freeform system

yeah he doesnt have the same aggresiveness of gerrard or rooney but hes more athletic than those as well

i sort of feel it's inevitable that he ends up more centrally, or has to be forced to stay wide once he develops his sense of entitlement and irrepressible belief in his own irrepressibility

he's developed that and little else this season imo

tho if arry would like to experiment with three at the back against teams where we dominate posession but can't get nearer that thirty yards, BAE/Walker would be perfect wingbacks that could theoretically let Bale/Vdv operate as more inside forwards with a more implicit licence to cut in

the poor man's Valencia

― Number None, Saturday, 24 March 2012 14:31 (Yesterday) Bookmark

v pleased with yrself huh

you don't even know how drunk i was

good cut and pasting tho

Allowing Bale to basically bomb around wherever he wants is looking like Redknapp's worst call as Spurs manager. Leaves BAE very badly exposed against teams with pace on the right flank (exhibit a being letting even Theo Walcott look like a worldbeater).

If Bale was actually that good coming infield then it would be worth it, but, well, he isn't, especially when that's VDV's best position. If nothing else, there aren't that many amazing right backs in the Premiership and you want him running at them. It's also a waste of a fantastic crosser of the ball, especially when Adebayor's there. Except he starts drifting out to the left when Bale's not there. Letting Modric drift out there is even worse because he's much more effective in the middle.

Newcastle aside, we've basically stopped winning since we started pissing around with the front five. Lennon's injury hasn't helped either, given we're overstocked with attacking midfielders we don't actually have anyone else effective to play there, it's weirdly threadbare. Certainly not Kranjcar, he's better on the left where he's never going to get a game, and not VDV either.

Also Gerrard went to shit when he was allowed to do whatever the hell he wanted as well.

Actually what I'm most reminded of is all the dicking around people did with David Beckham's position, especially attempting to convert him into a central midfielder when he was the best crosser from the right flank in the world.

an excellent summing up

ya, 100% otm

misuse of krancjar as much-needed cover in lm/cm/vdv role is another seriously on-point criticism of arry this year.

not misuse there, i mean more 'failure to use' arry seems to think he's a rm instead which he patently isnt

sort of amazing how little time has elapsed between bale being considered too limited for left wing and now so good he has to be given a free role.

id have predicted a few seasons at least, but once he scored the goal vs norwich it was inevitable.

he might have the chutzpah for a free role but he doesnt nearly have the sense for finding space around the penalty area that gerrard developed. kakà was preternarurally adept at it, bale just runs straight into trouble.

gerrard /is/ better in a free role, his string of backpass assists for henry drogba and zidane showed how he never had the concentration of a great midfield player. bale has already proven he can be a great left winger so the haste redknapp has shown in playing him inside is kinda stupid.

but i imagine this is going to be a recurring thing now whoever manages him, unless he ends up with someone like mourinho who never seems more than superficially impressed by any player. most of them are former players and ( w/ the odd exception like mancini) pretty limited ones, maybe they see a huge talent like bale and sort of relive their own desired career arc vicariously. i thought it was quite poignant when ferguson said of ronaldos thumping headed goal vs roma that it was the sort of goal /he/ would have scored. if only he was cristiano ronaldo.

eh was he ever considered too limited for lw? not since he was considered too limited for spurs at all, which was always a misconception for anyone that had seen him tbh.

yeah he was bought as a lb and played there mostly at southampton before becoming reserve to ekotto. even when he first had success drafted in at left wing two yrs ago, redknapp still spoke of him as a future great at lb (or lwb, if they still existed)

he was bought for lb but lwb really, i'm not sure at 17/8 it was because he was too limited rather than at southampton (and even spurs) it was ok to just consider lb an extra lm

this is some bill hitchert level obtuseness deems

eh i dunno how to respond to allegations like that tbh

i think players can break into a team in a position based on a lot more than where their talents would be maximised, and that's w/out takign into account any ensuing development over the formative years of their careers

has the player said anything about wanting to move into a more 'free' role or has 'arry said something to the effect of 'he does it really well in training'? It seems odd how they continue with something that obv. isnt working just for the sake of it

you a;lways assume it's player driven once it's obviously not working, i suppose? bale seems more than happy to continually drift in and try evermore hollywood shots/runs, doesn't seem to feel any onus to keep it simple and effective

maybe if Adebayor was less wasteful he'd want to cross more.

that's probably a point but ffs he had crouch all last year when he was really killin it on the wing

He was happy crossing to Crouch for long enough. Reckon it's manager driven.

Price/value/hype is a factor imo - wingers don't cost what Bale is apparently valued at, therefore he has to look like more than a winger.

that's very true- lots of direct central players with end product as good or better than bale's, imo, but not all that many wingers with attributes- power, pace, skill, crossing- so suited to the role.

I would definitely have Bale crossing from the left in an all time Prem XI who only scored headers.

this is a large part of what confuses me about the move away from the left. he reminds me so much of a less petulant ronaldo at utd. too tall, strong, athletic, etc. than yr average winger, can score beautiful goals from anywhere and whenever he wants to. (can also help out/switch with his full back!). it seems such a shame they want to give up a player who is on-paper-perfect for the position now, let alone that if he stays there he can most probably learn the ronaldo tricks that scare the shit out of players from the wing EVERY game. moving him around is stalling the process imo.

he needs to learn how to be a left winger who can also come central if it benefits the team, not a central player who can drift about.

Lennon's injury hasn't helped either, given we're overstocked with attacking midfielders we don't actually have anyone else effective to play there, it's weirdly threadbare. Certainly not Kranjcar, he's better on the left where he's never going to get a game, and not VDV either.

said this since forever but walker imo. letting corluka go (big fuckup on its own terms anyway) doesnt really make it an option any more however

Cosign all that.

see what you mean but ronaldo is much faster than bale though (in fact, harder, better, faster, stronger)

maybe not harder

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i214/justatest_photos/Soccer_boner_confusion.gif

Ronaldo is just much better in most every department. The initial post in this thread names a bunch of players who were better than Bale in various ways 18 months ago and I don't think he's raised his game that much since. Still closer to the often dangerous but technically limited types like Krasic and Valencia than the next-level attacking players.

it haunts me that i'll never know the identity of the other player in that gif

and yeah, Ronaldo was light years ahead of Bale even at the same stage in his career

xp p sure it's not scholesy if i recall that one particular photo correctly

I must have the evidence

really think about what ur asking for bro i beseech you

http://i.imgur.com/QKlOq.jpg

oh fuck

i knew not what i was asking for

Bale's a more consistent performer now than he was around the time of the Inter game. Obviously he's no Ronaldo and won't be until he can score 40 goals a season and take amazing free kicks etc.

he has taken amazing free kicks but vdv (and once recently bae) are ahead of him in the left footed queue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxlphjL3VZY

How often does he take frees anyway? Seemed to be fairly handy at them in his Southampton days

exactly it's kind of annoying he doesn't take them more

thankfully he has dropped that pirouette celebration. although the heart thing isn't much better.

Yeah I was under the impression when we signed him that he was amazing with a dead ball, like a left-footed Beckham, but if he was that good he'd have been doing it in training and would be right at the top of the pecking order.

dont think cron has scored an fk this season

There was this tap-in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQg_dGsr0GA

i thought that free kick in the last minute v chelsea was kind of ronaldo-esque

that was neat, stat i read was domestic i think

id like to see him score another like the fk vs portsmouth

thankfully he has dropped that pirouette celebration. although the heart thing isn't much better.

― mizzell, Friday, 30 March 2012 16:54 (53 minutes ago) Bookmark

NOTHING IS WORSE THAN THE HEART THING. as if he couldnt look any more kawaii anime git

http://postfiles14.naver.net/20110103_237/wngml8823_1294059153276iXNAO_JPEG/gareth_bale_with_his_hairclip_.mp4_000001525.jpg

never forget

yeah i hate the heart celebration. so twee.

lennon u & k to keeping a balance that gives bale oxygen on left, though he was excellent for the full 90 today.

agree with rtc that corluka should have been kept if only to allow for walker as cover on right- walker's come on so much that i won't argue with his first xi rb position now

Swansea have dyer, think a move for him over the summer as cover for lennon would be good? Pacy, direct and natural width.

is dyer better than hoilett? still would like to see marko marin too.

Marin has been p ropey for Bremen this season, including one game where the opposition put a man marker on him and he proceeded to basically sulk and stroll around until substituted after 55 mins or so. He was good last season though, although he doesn't play on the wing anymore iirc.

i see, i guess hoilett hasn't been playing on the wing eiter. all these guys want to play through the middle just so they can score goal for themselves?

Yeah the position seems to have evolved from winger going down the line on strongest foot and crossing ->winger playing on 'wrong' wing and cutting in onto his strongest foot to possibly shoot -> oh sod it I'll just play in the middle.

I wish some club would buy and actually play Wigan's Albert Crusat, he's looked like an excellent direct winger whenever I've seen him, tho on the left so not exactly what Spurs need.

"Take Gareth Bale, a player I love," he explains. "He's a full-back in the Brazilian mould, he has a similar idea. In Europe [Spurs] play him as a winger, but in my team he'd always be a full-back. People get scared and play attacking full-backs as wingers. They think they will attack more, but often they attack less and less well. It happened with Roberto Carlos: as a winger, he was less effective, he needs to start his run sooner. Bale is more skilful and good as a winger, but at Barcelona he would be a full-back."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/apr/16/dani-alves-barcelona-chelsea/print

take gareth bale, please

bpitw

bpitwnt at any rate

CHEATING SCUM

why doesn't he do it for spurs? feel like maybe the pure white light of his beating three and cunting it from 35 yards is often dispersed into so much colourful detritus when forced through the prism of jimbelly d'faux and scurdson

not sure what you're getting at. If anything he cheats more for Spurs

his cheating is as indefensible as his brilliance is undefendable GET ON THE END OF THAT ONE NULT

idk if he is a big fat cheat or whatever but he is def lately thinking he's too hot to bother making mickey owen brand gamesmanship look good

like the villa dive he was entitled to draw the obv foul with the keeper out so far but he instead just thought fuck it i'm bpitw this'll do

otm, lazy effort at a dive < full blooded suarez < takin the hit for the team

at least we can all agree that Tom Cleverley cemented his position as the most exciting young(ish) player in world football last night

most excitingish young player, maybe

so

he's developing into a somewhat more consistent player, sticking a bit more to the lw and what he's good at. feel that this is A Good Thing.

Still in and out of games. Still creating chances for players that aren't there (not his fault). Still diving.

How do we assess gareth bale as of nov 2012

Dani Alves still otm

i've seen g bale at lb. i'll keep him as a winger thanks.

What's he worth in january? Worried that levy has outed us as a club that sells too cheaply after modric and vdv.

It wasn't a dive last night btw. He's good, and imv getting more effective. But the heart thing. Must. Stop.

it was definitely a dive

yeah it was a dive

http://ballsdot.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/balerunlennongoal.gif

otm

fake ronaldo mighty hero pose before every free kick has overtaken the <3 for annoyingness now imo

(the fact he's also kinda pulling the dippers off also adds to the irritation)

he appears to be pretty thick even for a fitba player

Gareth Bale. Hamstring. Pinged.

the <3 thing is still the worst. i want to cry/gouge out my eyes every time i see it.

has settled into a very consistent/effective presence in the past twelve months imo, avb a good influence on him so far in keeping his performances at a high level and maybe limiting his wandering that was encouraged far too much under redknapp

hmm maybe not limiting so much (given a hat-trick from central last night) so much as working on the discipline of the wanders

aren't tottenham playing 442 atm? which is very attacking when one of the wingers is bale

it's kind of more a 4 3 2 with bale one of the two, adebayor being the ' '

adebayor is such a weirdo

he should be owned by an investment company like tevez cuz he never plays well for whoever owns his contract

otm, but long forseen tbf. that said, 7m of an outlay was worth the gamble and imo avb will drop defoe as soon as it's in any way justifiable, it must really annoy him on an instinctive/tactical level that this midget is working so well as a point man

http://i.imgur.com/rLr3M1u.png

smh

http://www.empireonline.com/images/uploaded/wreck-it-ralph-box-office.jpg

anyone?

Ha

wrecked newky defence today tbf

i cant wait to watch bale-ozil-ronaldo

Paranorman btw

Outside of the boot is subtly different to the cron dip or beckham instep n'est pas

Were people not saying (last season I think) that he didn't have skill to play in the centre and should stay out left? If so, what's changed?

Eh, not that he didnt have the skill tbh, i think it was more that the balance of the team required his staying left (remember that modric and vdv v adequately occupied the middle and an in-form adebayor prob deserved his service from wide).

i'm not sure his increased roving doesnt impact negatively on dembele, but tbf it's not like dempsey nor ade are gonna do fuck all even if bale was swinging in peach after peach so as well for him to roam to some effect.

this feeling that an optimally performing spurs wouldnt release bale into this free role is part of what keeps me from embracing it, it's a plan b tactic and my gut feeling is that it's not reliable in the long run.

There's a difference between Redknapp playing him in a free role (when he would just bomb around all over the place and no one would really know what he was doing) and AVB switching him to the middle, where he has a defined role. Like you get the feeling it's actually been worked on in training this time.

Also this:

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/gareth-bale-has-scored-tottenhams-last-6-goals-gifs/

Wish they'd work on not starting dempsey ahead of holtby in training tbh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BD-2f5XCUAEoSsY.jpg:large

Eck would have curbed those attacking ambitions and made a proper shite left-back out of him.

Not often you see Kris Boyd in the same company as the likes of Bale but there it is. Ailsa dug up another article yesterday sticking him in the Torres bracket (pre-shit Liverpool Torres, that is).

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/gareth-bale/club-after-summer-transfer-window

Spurs not even quoted.

Bayern at 12-1 looks good value.

Ribery still has 2 years left on his contract and has been great this season. Don't think they'll be interested.

Maybe. There was some talk of Pep wanting to move Ribery on but that might be nonsense.

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK00002657917

haha

has anyone done a 'shop of that yet with the Wu-Tang logo in the middle

goatseeeee

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67521000/jpg/_67521553_168311540.jpg

Gareth Frank Bale (born 16 July 1989) is a Welsh footballer who plays for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Wales national team as a winger.

for posterity

Not going anywhere.

http://distilleryimage4.ak.instagram.com/8916abf6f5a711e2a61a22000a9e06f0_7.jpg

spotted in times square

billboard has apparently been taken down already.

the best british players (apart from the actual best ie scholes) do tend to conform a force-of-nature type, gerrard is the best example and rooney when he is indulged, oxlade chamberlain is another of those players who 'could play anywhere' which usually means 'will play everywhere'

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Saturday, 24 March 2012 21:03 (1 year ago)

ross barkley is another to add to that list, he is very gifted but he doesn't have any sort of composure or natural discipline in his play, and it's not just because he is young

I am always faintly surprised when I remember that you rate Gerrard.

gerrard without the long passes would be a hell of a player

gerrard is a hell of a player, the long passes would have been crushed out of him elsewhere but they show passion and desire and plus he can kick it really hard and these are v good things in the british isles obv

ancelotti's madrid will be such a different team to tottenham of the last few years that i imagine him becoming yet another sort of player, that he will be broken down and remade in a different image

he just isn't going to be able to play with the license he has had for most of the last two seasons

Gareth Bale has a slipped disc on the L5 -S1 vertebrae and a bulge on the L4 -L5. This amounts to a significant injury which, at least for the moment, isn't giving him trouble and won't prevent him from playing for the foreseeable future. However, further down the line it may force him off the pitch and, depending on how things progress, may even require surgery.

Real Madrid medical staff diagnosed the injury on 2nd September, the day of his official presentation at the club. The MRI scan left no room for doubt: a slipped disc on the L5 -S1 vertebrae and a bulge, which is the beginnings of another, on L4 -L5. An injury that set alarm bells ringing at the Sanitas clinic in La Moraleja, just outside Madrid, and from where Florentino Pérez was informed of the injury hiding in the former Tottenham player's spine.

Bale said he hadn't noticed any pain at all and claimed he had never had problems in that area before.

There was no going back on the signing. The deal was done and Florentino Pérez, who was now up to speed on Bale's secret, did not object. The € 91million deal was going to go ahead as planned and neither hell nor high water would prevent Bale from running onto the pitch at the Bernabeú in a Nº 11 shirt, in front of a 40,000 strong crowd.

Since he was in no pain, the club chose not to dwell on it. But those who saw that MRI scan know all too well that they may face a very serious problem with the Welsh player at any moment...

levy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvW6qiTkZdw

In response to the information that the newspaper Marca has published today regarding the player Gareth Bale, Real Madrid would like to state the following:

1. The information published, claiming that the player has a slipped disc on the L5-S1 vertebrae and a bulge on two others, is completely false.

2. The player does not have a slipped disc, as the club's medical services stated clearly to the newspaper before the information was published. Surprisingly, the version the doctors offered this media outlet on Thursday 10 October has been omitted.

3. The player Gareth Bale has a small chronic disc bulge, which is extremely common among football players and by no means prevents him from carrying out his professional activity normally.

http://i.imgur.com/iEpb7Uu.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzxmUSEYk8

s'alright I suppose

Gareth Fail.

my friend insisted on showing me this goal on his phone

lol

valdano was negging him in midweek, some of the madrid press seem to be ever so slightly disappointed that all he does is run really fast and finish with impeccable technique from ever angle, this is what you get

10 in 17 in the league despite arriving injured and getting injured again midseason

i'm content seeing him have a quietly accomplished first season while he acclimatizes & gets over his injuries. it's so rare to see a successful british export, i've ended up wanting to see him excel despite myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUln6RCw4NU

http://i.imgur.com/8OQprPI.jpg

"bale makes hay"
About 13,700 results

there are some pissy comments bout the awkward looking right footed touch that brings the ball into the box

clumsy as it looks, it ensures he is clearly in front of barta so that any attempt to get the ball is a certain penalty, and gives him a better shooting angle

the 'speed merchant' calumnizers misread the sort of calculation that allows a player to eke everything possible from his athleticism, being fast is only half the story

http://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/gareth-bale-goal-barcelona-real-madrid-copa-del-rey-2014-final.gif

bottle job from tata there tbh

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/11/268A5A1100000578-0-image-a-60_1426085641539.jpg

Gareth Bale was berated as he left the Santiago Bernabeu after Real Madrid's 4-3 defeat by Schalke on Tuesday night

That's one for the "things you always sing to a tune" thread, because the next line is "PC McGarry Number 452".

i'm afraid seven nation army has that cadence sewn up. it's a shame

Haha I immediately sang that as Seven Nation Army without even questioning it, it was just an automatic reaction.

Reading this thread back was kinda fun.

Ramsey has been a mixture of crocked/shit this season huh?

he was terrible against schalke alright but even as a RW under avb that was purely a nominal ruse to cut in and shoot/score, the last night he was going wide and crossing off his right and it wasn't pretty

still, 8 games seems a bit dramatic to base "move" stories on

crocked would in fairness account for uh call it stuttering form alright

which out of utd or rm would turn down angel de maria +£40m for gareth bale?

RM obv missing lil luka, but they also can't really defend the wings playing those 3 up top. Could get Bale to play more as a wide midfielder and tilt the central mids towards the left but does Bale really want to do that?

If I didn't loathe him so much I might feel a little sorry for how much stick he's been getting from the bernabeau. But seeing as I do I'm finding it p funny.

Face it Gareth, you're just a poor mans McManaman.

http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/wA6eBA0.png

ouch

could maybe do a job for us as cover for Jonny and Vinagre

155 appearances and 78 goals for Real is way more than I expected for someone who still gets treated as a flop despite literally winning them the Champions League a year ago.

Yeah i assume he goes out on the town wearing a Barca shirt and punching babies otherwise i don't really get it

with his left only obv