The stats add up to success at Spurs for Bale
IT wasn’t so long ago we were told Gareth Bale was finished. His display in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Premier League strugglers Brighton and Hove Albion earned him a player rating of three from our colleagues at Football.London earlier in the season.
The four-time Champions League winner’s performance was dismissed as “ineffective” that night – the lowest point of his second spell in North London.
Even his biggest fans on the Welsh side of the border would surely have been lying if they claimed not to be deeply concerned, particularly with a European Championship around the corner.
Whatever way you looked at it, Bale’s second spell at Spurs appeared an expensive mistake.
Now, fast forward a few months, some are incredibly starting to wonder if there’s a case for Spurs exploring the possibility of another loan spell, such has been the Wales star’s upturn in form.
Bale followed up a goal against former club Southampton with a stunning hat-trick against Sheffield United at the weekend, and many are already pointing to interim boss Ryan Mason as the catalyst behind those recent exploits.
The player himself admitted that he’s benefitted from a fresh, more attacking-minded, approach, claiming Mason has allowed Spurs to play the ‘Tottenham way’ once again.
The Welshman’s imperious performance at the weekend wasn’t quite the Bale of old, but it was probably about as close as is possible for the 31-year old to get nowadays.
One can’t help but wonder what his former boss Jose Mourinho makes of it all.
From the outside looking in, there seemed a real lack of trust between the pair, with Mourinho handing Bale just six league starts during his tenure.
His exclusion of Bale was, in the end, perhaps a factor in his sacking, with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy surely unimpressed to see such an expensive asset left out of the firstteam picture, particularly after working so hard to bring him back to the club he left for a world record fee in 2013.
And, despite some high-profile below-par performances, the stats actually suggest Mourinho’s lack of faith was, on the whole, perhaps a little misplaced.
The Wales skipper has so far netted 14 goals in all competitions for Spurs, his best goal tally in two years.
Not only that, but after his hattrick on Sunday, Bale has averaged a goal every 81 minutes, a better ratio than any other player in the Premier League this season.
That’s even ahead of Harry Kane (120), whom we’re still consistently told is world class, and Jesse Lingard (118), whose loan spell at West Ham United has been heralded as one of the success stories of the season.
Bale’s goal against the Saints was also his 11th goal contribution in his last 11 starts, suggesting Spurs are potentially a more dangerous side with him in the frontline.
Yes, Mason has clearly provided Bale with a new manager bounce, but none of those stats can be boiled down to two or three games under a new boss.
The promising signs of improvement were already there, but with just 10 minutes of football to his name during the final few weeks of the Mourinho era, it’s clear the outgoing Spurs boss wasn’t listening.
That’s not to say some of the criticism around Bale wasn’t justified, there have clearly been some shortcomings. Shortcomings that perhaps contributed to Mourinho’s thinking on the winger.
But, as the age-old saying goes: form is temporary, class is permanent.