The summer transfer window looks like being a pretty painful one for Tottenham fans. Endless speculation about the future of Gareth Bale is something we and manager Andre Villas Boas could do without, especially as we’re trying to push into the top four and make the Champions League. Having missed out on the final day of the season, AVB should know what’s needed to improve.
Bale-ing out?
He’s our star player, and one that the biggest clubs on the planet have shown an interest in bringing, but where is Bale likely to go? The smart money says that Real Madrid, bolstered by the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti as new manager, could be his new club. However, if he is to leave, it should be for a price tag in the region of £80m, although Real want to do a cash plus players deal.
While the money would be good (assuming it all gets spent on a replacement and on other areas such as attack and defence), we would be losing someone who changed so many games. Fortunately, there may be a chance that he might stay for at least another season, especially if Real, Barcelona or any other interested team fail to meet our asking price.
A distant dream
Without Bale, it can be hard to see us challenging for a Europa League spot, never mind the top four. Despite the uncertainty over his future at White Hart Lane, according to Ladbrokes, we’re a 19/10 shot to qualify for the Champions League next season. Should we make it, we’ll need to do more than just keep hold of our beloved Welsh talisman.
Our main problem last season was lack of goals up front. When he did play, Jermain Defoe was useful, but Emmanuel Adebayor was as erratic as ever. A big-name striker such as Alvaro Negredo from Sevilla or even Roberto Soldado from Valencia might do the trick. Basically, anyone who can help reduce the massive burden on Bale if he stays.
In the more likely event of his departure, we will need a more than adequate replacement to fill his boots. Paulinho, the Brazil midfielder has been linked with us, but the reported £17m price tag coupled with rumoured interest from Real Madrid may see him head to the Spanish capital instead. Alternatively, we could actually follow up our interest in Leandro Damiao!
is this getting on anyone’s nerves
i wish it’ll get sorted one way or another.
we sell bale… so what big deal we’ll get a big lump sum which’ll go towards 2 or 3 players and/or the new ground, if he stays … well great but either way… win win situation..
in the end i don’t really think witha couple of decent strikers that a missing bale would be of real significance.
Tend to agree with ped. If we sell Bale, we can opt for the player plus cash option. If he stays, great. Who knows, he could break a leg in a pre-season friendly, and that would leave us well and truly up the creek. The only problem I can see with selling him is the effect that might have on AVB, owing to the fact that he has been told that GB won’t be sold at any price. Whatever happens, Spurs will keep going! We carried on after being relegated didn’t we??
We’re all dooomed.
It looks like AVB wants to play a 4-3-3 next year, with Paulinho, Dembele, and Sandro in the midfield. Having a forward three of Bale, David Villa, and Lennon would be ideal. But if we lose Bale, we have plenty of money to find someone else to put on the left side of the attack. Either way, we’re looking at a strong side. We’ll either have bale, or 85 million to go shopping with. I’m not worried, either way.
What is getting on my nerves Ped is this constant stream of articles that are based on no facts whatsoever. AVB has said GB11’s not going and Daniel has said he’s not going as well. Yet there continues to be so much unfounded speculation. And it’s bad enough when journos and supporters of other clubs write this kind of tosh but I really despair when it appears on Spurs based sites.
Have you actually stopped to think where all this hype is coming from? No other than the mirror newspaper via the Madrid mouthpiece marca. When the oily greasers went after Modric, it was well documented that he wanted out of the club and was angling at every available opportunity to get out. The then manager Redknapp was eager to sell and didn’t put up and resistance. The only man that did was the Chairman who told Chelsea the year before where they could put their offer however faced with a traitorous player, he did the right thing and sold the little Croatian rat. The situation this time around is vastly different. To our knowledge Bale has not asked for a transfer, AVB sees him as a vital to his plans and was give assurances by Levy that he would not sell Bale under any circumstances. Of course this could all change if Bale asks to be released from his contract and so far he hasn’t. If Levy back tracks now, he will not only lose face and credibility but lose the trust and perhaps a very promising manager in AVB because he would have effectively stabbed him in the back. If you keep selling your best players, all it would prove is that Spurs are nothing more than a stepping stone without a hope of progressing further than where we are right now.
Nice to see a “Ray” (pun intended) of sense amongst all this baseless speculation! 😉
Of course it would be a colossal loss if Bale went, but can Spurs really afford to turn down 85mill.
Bale is one player, he is a marked man and if he gets injured, as is very possible, then we lose him anyhow. With 85mill we could buy 3 or 4 top class players and injury to one would not be fatal.
Imagine de Maria, Damio, Villa, Paulino etc. Would selling Bale be so disastrous. And he wi;
ll be a bit like Modders, unhappy, if he stays. Real have unfortunately turned his head.
Having been a Spurs fan since 1949, and a season ticket holder for 30 years, I was hoping that, having come so close to the glory days again, we would act convincingly to get our squad where it needs to be, well before the pre-season matches. But it seems the fans will again be put through the stress wringer.
Every transfer window seems to end with disappointment and frustration – let’s break the mould this time, and get the business done
As we know he is not being sold it’s a totally irrelevant question.
Whilst I believe bale is really good player I think he has been over hyped and I think that the reason we became so reliant on him is because the rest of the players bought into the hype and kept giving him the ball, which meant we as a team became predictable, if bale didn’t do it (granted if often did) then know one did, and top players like dembele, Lennon, Defoe just did not perform. As much as I like bale I would prefer to have de Maria, Higguin, paulinho, and bentekke, sell bale, adeybayor, Parker, huddlestone, give Rose a chance at left back and a young back up keeper and we would be set for challenging for the title never mind top 4 and bale can rotate with modric the little rat on the bench at Madrid!
frustrating and of course baseless as it is, it wouldn’t help for some kind of communication from either spurs or bale/his representatives to either dispel the remarks – hence giving madrid & the media circus the big F**k off or say that he would go… it would let all move on.
plus it might give levy £80 million or so to try to spend on the last 20 minutes of this transfer window
If Bale goes, for Higuain, Coentrao, di Maria and cash, then one of a number of possible lineups could be: Lloris; Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Coentrao; Sandro Paulinho Dembele; di Maria Higuain Ince (available for £8.5 million). How could such a lineup not be stronger than what we already have? I’d love Gareth to stay – but we may never be able to get such a great return from selling him as we can right now, when he holds all the individual accolades from the PFA and FWA. Every player mentioned as a possible makeweight represents an upgrade on players we currently have in those positions. We’d be nuts to not even CONSIDER the option.
Thought AVB had it set in stone from Levy that Bale will NOT be sold this year, Plus if you saw the interviews on Bale he actually said that he doesn`t read the rubbish in the papers that we do. The future is bright for this year and Bale WILL be with us hence top 3 finish yesssssssssss COYS