Gareth Bale

[dom9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_Bale#Tottenham_Hotspur

2009–10 season

In June 2009, Bale underwent surgery for a knee injury, ruling him out for over 2 months. He missed pre-season matches and it was projected that he would miss the first few weeks of the 2009–10 season.[47] On 26 September, he made his comeback as an 85th minute substitute in Tottenham's 5–0 thrashing of Burnley. This was Bale's first ever involvement in a Premier League win, after playing a record 24 league matches for Spurs without being on the winning side.

[Liverpool]

TBF, that was probably before he got good. He was a left back, no?

If I recall correctly, Spurs didn't record a single win in his first 24 games for them.

I think they tried to offload plus cash for Downing.

[PTP]

I stand by that....I'd still rather have batman

[Bender]

'Disaster'. 'Irrelevant'. 'Listless'. The Spanish Sunday papers did not make happy reading for Gareth Bale.

Real Madrid were hammered 4-0 by rampant local rivals Atletico on Saturday afternoon, and it was one of those occasions when they were lucky to get nil.

The performance of Bale and the rest of his colleagues will go down in infamy alongside an embarrassing 5-0 loss against Barcelona in November 2010.

After such an abysmal display even the usually-loyal Madrid media are on the attack and Bale, signed from Tottenham for a world record £85m in September 2014, is one of their targets.
'He's just watching….a spectator'

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti was unsparing in his criticism of his team after their heaviest derby defeat since a 5-0 loss in 1947.

"It was bad. Very bad," he admitted. "Atletico deserved to win in every aspect: desire, quality, organisation, second balls, aerial balls. We didn't have a single player who had a good game."

That damning verdict was universally shared by fans and pundits after an embarrassingly one-sided encounter. The Champions League holders failed to register a single shot on target until the 81st minute.


Bale won the Champions League and Spanish Cup in his first season.
Bale received more than his share of the blame, with former Liverpool and Republic of Ireland striker Michael Robinson, who is now Spain's foremost television pundit, strongly criticising the Welshman after his opposing full-back Guilherme Siqueira set up Atletico's second goal.

"He's just watching….a spectator," lamented Robinson as the replays showed Bale ambling back while Siqueira skipped to the byeline without a care in the world and delivered a cross for Saul to acrobatically volley home.

To suggest his performance was ineffective would be an understatement. Bale had 44 touches of the ball, completed only 22 passes and had no shots on target. He made just one successful cross, conceded three free-kicks and - crucially against a combative team like Atletico - did not make any successful tackles.

He was described as 'a defensive disaster' by tabloid newspaper AS, who also said the Welshman was 'irrelevant'. Its writers could not bring themselves to hand him a rating in their match report. Only Toni Kroos, Fabio Coentrao and Nacho Fernandez were given the distinction of 1 out of 3, with every other player was simply left blank.

Another paper, Marca, was slightly more generous, giving Bale 4.5 out of 10 - making him the team's joint 'best' player alongside Kroos and Dani Carvajal. However Marca's writers also described him as 'listless' and left little doubt that this game did nothing to bolster Bale's reputation in Spain, which is currently somewhat in need of a boost.
Accusations of selfishness

More worryingly for Bale, this is not the first time in recent weeks that he has faced criticism.
The former Tottenham and Southampton man has been accused of selfishness on several occasions so far this calendar year after getting into good positions but failing to pass to colleagues.

Most noticeably, Cristiano Ronaldo showed his displeasure on the pitch after Bale shot wide when he could have teed up his teammate with an open goal during the latter stages of a home win over Espanyol in January.
BBC

[Trippendicular]

Not that I care for Bale, but Ronaldo had an equally abject game and I doubt he'll be targeted the same way.

Cristiano Ronaldo's game by numbers vs. Atletico Madrid: 0 goals, 0 chances created, 0 take-ons completed, 0 crosses completed, 0 shots on target, 70% pass accuracy.

[Norbs]

He's been there longer than September 2014 surely?

[Bender]

He's been there longer than September 2014 surely?

it's a bbc error should be Sep 2013 ....i'd ask for a refund

[-V-]

He's wasted out wide. His best form for Spurs was when he was playing down the middle. He's got pace and acceleration to pick the ball up centrally and run with it through the heart of a teams defence or drag defenders wide.

Instead Madrid have him on the touchline with limited options

[rodo]

Not that I care for Bale, but Ronaldo had an equally abject game and I doubt he'll be targeted the same way.

Cristiano Ronaldo's game by numbers vs. Atletico Madrid: 0 goals, 0 chances created, 0 take-ons completed, 0 crosses completed, 0 shots on target, 70% pass accuracy.

exactly ronaldo even went on the piss after it

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Hopefully United spunk a larger chunk of their budget on him whilst moving De Gea the other way.

Not that he isn't class but that De Gea is their best player

[Bender]

Never has he been popular with the Real Madrid fans or media.....
[ame]https://twitter.com/IndyFootball/status/656792820892631041[/ame]
Real Madrid editor Tomas Roncero of Spanish sports daily AS wrote: "The injury to Bale is a real irritant to every proper Madrid fan.

"Where it’s bad luck we’ll always support a player so that they recover as quickly as possible. But you have mocked Real Madrid because you have prioritised your national team over the club that pays you.

“Be patriotic, love your country, but if you are already qualified you don’t need to go to the party against Andorra, and play 90 minutes on top of that. It’s inadmissible for a Real Madrid player."

Newspaper columnist Manu Sainz called Bale’s decision “a lack of respect” whilst journalist Roberto Morales said the decision to play against Andorra was “an act of total irresponsibility”.
LINK

[Mike]

Bale with Wales, Suarez with Uruguay and Sanchez with Chile.

Player picks country of birth over team they've been at for two years, shocker. Nowadays you really can't win with the media.

[Alex]

Madrid fans have to be some of the most demanding in Europe.

[Chris]

He does appear at least to try harder for Wales than he does for Real, he's become a right lazy cunt for them now but damn, their sense of entitlement is ****ing horrible. It was the first time they'd qualified in zillions of years and they could still win the group anyway, of course they were going to play him and why shouldnt they?

Theres no guarantees at all that Wales beat Andorra without Bale either! They only won 2-0 and 1-2 with him and he scored 3 of those 4 goals!

[EwarWoo]

Wonder if they'd have the same issues if he played for Spain.