Us versus Them (part 3)

How many England football fans wish that Gareth Bale had been English? A good part of them would be my guess. Gareth Bale began his career at Southampton, along with Theo Walcott. Walcott chose Arsenal, Bale went to Spurs. Obvious then which one was the better player, eh?

To suggest that a player who pulled on a Spurs shirt for over 20 games without being on the winning side could be now regarded as one of the best left sided footballers in the world seems far fetched; but there are some pundits who believe Bale is just that.

In the spring, regardless of how well Spurs are doing, it won't be transfer speculation surrounding Rafael Van Der Vaart, Luca Modric, Robbie Keane or Aaron Lennon; it will be focused on Bale. In some peoples eyes he's worth in excess of £20,000,000 already. If he continues in the same vein he's started the season, that could easily double and then Spurs well structured money making machine will have to ask some serious questions about whether it has real ambition.

Bale has already scored arguably the goal of the season - the volley against Wolves from neck height. He has torn some great defenders new arse holes week in and out and he's only just 21. No wonder there are fan sites sprouting up as far as field as Italy and Malaysia. The boy is a revelation.

He showed that as Spurs rode out comfortable 4-1 winners against FC Twente in the Champions League. To be fair, the result was aided by two dubious penalty claims, but the stone wall penalty was won by Bale, who then went on to score a sublimely wonderful goal, when Spurs down to 10 men, seemed to be playing better football than when they had 11.

Discussing with Roger about Spurs' hopes of retaining Champions League football next season; we were both of the opinion that, despite the indifferent starts of every team focusing on 4th spot, it's going to be a wish too far. The only way they can realistically qualify is to win it. The thing is, the pundits were all saying that for Spurs to improve they have to keep world class players like Van Der Vaart and Modric and to do that they have to finish at least 4th in the EPL. They need to ensure they keep Gareth Bale more than anything else, because he really is world class and if he stays free from injury will only get better.