Spurs Transfers: Gareth Bale - Don’t Believe The Hype
including the Guardian) are firing about, as if that sort of astronomical figure actually means anything. The transfer fee currently on the table is obviously not the full story, we have no idea how much is really being offered and the stories of half the Real Madrid squad being swapped for him doesnt help us to separate the bullshit from the hyperbole. However, that figure £100 million compelled me to write about something that has bugged me ever since Bale ran past Lucio and Maicon really fast. Something that has become gospel for all the lemmings and hindsight merchants that make up the world of sports journalism and football punditry is the idea that the order of world footballers goes Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on an equal pedestal and then somewhere not too far behind, Mr Bale. This is wrong. Bale simply has not earned the right to be in the same sentence as two of the greatest footballers of all time, yet. But he scored 31 goals in all competitions from the midfield last season, I hear you shout. Messi and Ronaldo? 60 and 55 respectively, and that doesnt even include international goals. As the old song goes, anything you can do I can do better and in the case of Ronaldo and Messi, anything is very much the operative word. Bale has been dominated on numerous occasions in the past few years by many sides. Chelsea in the Champions League last season was a case in point, as the Blues defence made him look schoolboy. The same couldn't be said for the only two players supposedly better than him: Messi scored against every team in La Liga in one sitting, and every time Ronaldo picked up the ball against Manchester United in the two legs of their Champions League tie he looked dangerous. So, now that you definitely agree with me that hes nowhere near the ability of Ronaldo and Messi, let us decide if he is the best of the rest. And the answer, once more is no. Is he the best finisher? Robin Van Persie might have something to say about that. Is the best dribbler? I watched this kid called Neymar on youtube the other day, you should go and check him out, he can do tricks and everything. Is he the best free kick taker? Apart from a whole host of free kick specialists that are dotted around the globe, someone with class elsewhere in the pitch with a devilish eye for the dead ball situation is Andrea Pirlo. Passer? Mata, Xavi, Carrick. Crosser? Navas. So what is it that has caused Bale to be held on high as the Messiah? The world of football journalism has created the myth of Bale. Much like the headline news that is Fernando Torres scoring a goal, Bale seems to have been given a disproportionate amount of coverage since his famous performances against Milan. Bale scoring from outside the area became headline news and every time he had a quiet game it was often suffixed with the phrase uncharacteristic in match reports. The response has been disproportionate to say the least. Even reading the BBC match reports pre and post Milan, Bale suddenly turns from Gareth Bale into The Ever-Dangerous Bale. Plenty of players regularly do incredible things on a football pitch. Get over it. After years of being told that he is the greatest player to ever grace a football pitch, he seems to finally be starting to float gently into the air. Watching him last season I couldnt help but feel like he thought he could do anything. This is a great trait to have as a footballer, many thrive on confidence but in Bales case it caused a lot of waste. Bale plummeted down the assists chart this season with only 4 with a noticeable change of tact. Obviously the manager had a lot to do with this but I can think of very few times I saw Bale not at least think about driving towards the goal throughout the season. His game saving goal against West Ham this season was a man who believed he could do something going out and doing it. But from Sunday League to the World Cup, any player who thinks they are better than they are actually are, is a detriment to the team. My point is Bale is at a crossroads in his career, he can become a Ronaldo or he can become a Nani, the choice is very much his. Another facet of the Bale myth I would like to dispel is his dribbling ability. Yes, he dribbles well, but so do many other players in the world, so why is he so effective? In the past, David Beckham was my idol - in fact, every kid my age learnt how to curl the ball just to play like him. Some might argue it is his greatest legacy. Not so long ago I watched a video of every single assist that Beckham had as a Manchester United player and there was one thing that struck me, for so many of his whipped crosses, he had enough time and space to get set, look up and play the cross. I racked my head for a while thinking about why this was and I came to one conclusion - it all comes down to fear. It is fear on the part of the defenders that makes great players better. Lauded as the greatest player in the world at the time (he wasnt even the best in that team) Im sure it got under the skin of the nations left backs. Some sort of cognitive dissonance caused defenders to think more about the cross than simply closing down Beckham as they would with normal wingers. The same could be said of Bale: so many times this season he has gassed his way through defences as if they werent there, and the fact of the matter may be that they simply werent. Too captivated by all they had heard about Bale, many players may have felt intimidated and forgotten the basics. If those earlier quoted reports are to be believed, Gareth Bale is now worth more than £100 million to Real Madrid. The maths hear just doesnt seem to work out. Man United would apparently make a fraction of that from selling Rooney to Chelsea, and the suggestion is thus that Bale is at least twice, if not thrice or four times as good as Rooney on paper depending on the valuation. Obviously this is extremely simplified but there's no denying that the transfer cost for Bale is a manifestation of the years of hot air that has been written about him. Some might say that this article makes me look like I have some sort of personal vendetta with Bale. This is not the case: I enjoy watching him as a player and I do think he is world class now. My personal vendetta is with the glorification of him. Despite what you might read there are much more exciting players to watch in the Premier League: Juan Mata deserves so much more praise than he gets for example. He is one of the most intelligent and versatile players in the world and a joy to witness. However Bale is now an inspiration to kids everywhere and just as I went to the park by myself and tried to perfect the Beckham free kick they will be trying to run the length of the pitch and smash one in from outside the area. Imagine if the nation was inspired by Mata and everyone wanted to play like that, we would win the World Cup in 10 years for sure (blind optimism comes free with this article.) One of the main characters in the film Friday Night Lights (if you havent seen it, go and watch it, then the five TV series and then come back and finish this) is posed the question about his mercurial ability at an early stage in the film Boobie, do you believe the hype?. His answer No. You see, hype is something that isnt real, and Im all real. Whilst ridiculous in its content, the line provides an important lesson for Bale and his legion of fans: no one can possibly predict where Bale will sit at the end of his career. Yes, he has a chance of being one of the greats however, at the same time, it is far too early to tell right now, just as it was on that night in Milan.