Graham Roberts has moved to defend Tottenham Hotspur new boy Gareth Bale.
Spurs pulled off one of the biggest transfer deals in Europe so far this summer by re-signing their legendary winger on a season-long loan from Real Madrid.
The writing had been on the wall for Bale in Spain for some time, with Zinedine Zidane regularly leaving him out of match-day squads toward the end of his spell at the Bernabeu.
The 31-year-old was a title winner for Real last season in name only and he’ll be hoping to rebuild his career where it really started – North London.
One journalist – Ollie Holt – was speaking to talkSPORT on Wednesday and threw caution to the wind for Tottenham fans with regards to their expectations of Bale.
Holt even suggested that the Wales international could be simply a ‘bit-part player’ under Jose Mourinho for the Lilywhites this season, a claim that club legend Roberts has rejected.
Here’s how he responded to Holt’s suggestion on Twitter:
Is Holt right? In truth, we don’t know.
Bale has returned to Tottenham with a minor injury, but he has had quite a few injuries over the past seven years and he certainly isn’t coming back the same electric player who left in 2013.
The truth is, nobody knows how Bale is going to re-adapt to life at Spurs until he plays, which won’t be until after the next international break in October.
Ability-wise, he still has more than enough to roast Premier League defenders, but whether he’s hungry enough to do it on a consistent basis remains to be seen.
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