Tottenham are yet to see him at his best but reports of a fallout with Mourinho have been played down
Gareth Bale’s underwhelming second spell at Tottenham continues to generate headlines, but reports of a dispute between the player and Jose Mourinho are wide of the mark.
That’s according to journalist Matt Lawton, who says his lack of regular starts is down to a lack of fitness.
Rumours of a rift between the two intensified last week after Mourinho said that Bale had asked for a scan after missing training on Monday, only for the Welshman to say “Good session today” in a post on Instagram.
As quoted by the BBC, Mourinho replied by saying: “It was a contradiction between the post and the reality.
“Since the beginning of the season in relationship to everything, I try to be very private and try to keep everything indoors, but I felt I needed to address the situation.
“The post was not even his responsibility, I don’t know. But the post was showing ‘training session great and I am ready’ and was totally wrong.
“He had a scan, the scan didn’t show an injury but his feelings were still there and coaches, sports science and medical people, we can never go against feelings because the player’s feelings are much more important than all of us.
“So he was not ready for the game. It is as simple as that.”
Bale returned to London from Real Madrid in September, with Spurs reportedly paying half of his £600,000-a-week wages, but has only made two starts in the Premier League.
His appearance from the bench in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat against Manchester City was his first involvement since January 31.
Times Chief Sports Correspondent Lawton told talkSPORT on Tuesday morning: “Its an isolated disaster if you like, because even though I assume Madrid are still carrying the bulk of his wages, Tottenham are paying a lot of money to have him.
“And even someone as stubborn and sometimes as ruthless as Mourinho, I think if Gareth Bale was fit he would play him. So the idea that he’s only been left out for any other reason than fitness, I don’t buy that.
“I don’t think it’s personality. I think it is down to fitness. I think he’d love to play the Gareth Bale that excelled in all those Champions League finals for Real Madrid.
“And I do think that Bale’s social media post was a challenge to Mourinho’s authority.
“I think it was a little grenade thrown to let people know that he’d been left out but actually he’s fit.
“And I was listening earlier when I was driving down on talkSPORT and there was some criticism of Mourinho for making this a public row if you like, but Bale made it public by what he said and Mourinho, I guess feeling that challenge to his authority, had to respond and say ‘Well, he might think he’s fit, but I don’t think he is’.
“That’s essentially what he was saying, that was the underlying message of what he was saying.
“He’s still only 31, and he’s always been a great athlete as well, so I’m not entirely sure what the problem is, but if he was firing on all cylinders I cannot believe that Jose Mourinho would not put him in the team because we know what a match-winner he can be.”
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