Speaking on the ITV Football Podcast, Gary Neville has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur fan-favourite Gareth Bale isn’t under enough scrutiny for his recent underperformances.
Neville says that Bale, despite being the poster-boy for his nation’s football team, doesn’t come under the type of scrutiny you’d expect a superstar of his stature to.
What’s been said?
Neville claimed that Bale gets an easy ride from the media.
“I think he gets off lightly Gareth Bale. It might be an unpopular opinion, but to have the talent he has and to be the player he has and to be a £100m player. When I look at other players in other countries, whether that’s Ibrahimovic with Sweden or Rooney with England over the years, these players get put under enormous scrutiny to perform, and I don’t think Gareth Bale gets put under that scrutiny to deliver, certainly not by us, even at Tottenham last season the media watched him sit on the bench for a long time and we weren’t screaming why is Gareth Bale not starting. The stature of player he is, I expect that when he plays the way he played on Saturday he would come under more scrutiny,” Neville said.
He’s earned it
Neville might be right about Bale not being criticised by the media, but surely he’s earned that right.
He’s arguably Tottenham’s best player since the turn of the millennium, he’s won four Champions Leagues with Real Madrid and he’s taken Wales to the semi-finals of a Euros, what more do you want?
Yes, he hasn’t been the Bale of old this season, but after 15 years of playing top-level football, you’re bound to slow down.
It’s actually quite refreshing to see a player not criticised every two minutes for his underperformance, and if any player has earned the right to escape that sort of critique, it’s Bale.
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