Tottenham are finally seeing a glimpse of the old Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale may finally have found some form, but not everyone is lining up to congratulate the Welshman just yet.
It’s been a frustrating second spell at Tottenham thus far for the 31-year-old, who arrived from Real Madrid on a season-long loan in September having fallen out of favour with Zinedine Zidane at the Bernabeu.
He’s failed to hold down a regular place in Jose Mourinho’s starting XI, and a record of four goals in 16 matches over nearly five months did little to justify his reported £300,000-per-week salary.
The player does appear to have turned a corner in recent weeks, with four goals in his last four games, including a double in Sunday’s 4-0 win over Burnley.
Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan, however, stands by his comments from early last month in which he told talkSPORT listeners that Bale was “a busted flush”.
Speaking on talkSPORT again, Jordan asked: “What precisely had Gareth Bale done up until that particular point, besides being a willing substitute and a smiling, gurning voyeur from the stands?”
“Well he’d been injured. For the most part he’d been injured” responded host Jim White, to which Jordan replied: “No, he hadn’t been, he’d been getting fit.
“He’d been not match fit, not ready to play, not it for purpose, not training, doing training, enjoying it, not doing it – apparently, according to Mourinho – we got mixed messages.
“What we hadn’t seen was the Gareth Bale that we saw yesterday.
“So it was perfectly apt to say at that moment in time that was where we were.
“Now, Gareth Bale, with 13 games of the season to go, 12 games to go, so 26 games gone past, x amount of games in Europe, x amount of cup games, 35 games, £15 million later, and what Gareth Bale has earned in salary, we’re all going to say ‘Wonderful, he’s arrived’.
“I’m sorry, that’s half the problem with football. Half the problem with football is waxing lyrical about what people should be doing in the first place.
“All he’s doing is what he should be doing and now we’re all going to jump on this wonderful gravy train saying ‘Isn’t he wonderful?’.
“Well we all knew he was wonderful. That’s why he gets £25 million a year salary, surely.
“We surely can’t now be saying ‘Oh well done for what you should be doing in the first place’.”
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