Bale showing that he really belongs at Real Madrid
THE BEST players are supposed to start their careers in positions up the field and then, as age catches up with them, they gradually work their way back.
Well, that’s what happened to me anyway. Life began as a marauding left winger at Preston North End, and it ended as Ireland left-back with Giovanni Trapattoni screaming at me to stay on our side of the halfway line.
One man who has done it the other way round, and who is definitely not normal, is Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale.
Twenty four hours after playing a good cameo role as a sub in Real Madrid’s 1-0 Champions League win over Liverpool, I met the Welshman for a BBC Football Focus interview.
And what was immediately apparent is that he is now very much at home in the Spanish capital with one of the biggest clubs in the world.
I played against Bale a few times when he was at Tottenham, but I didn’t really come up against him directly; he was a young left-back signed from Southampton and I was still ploughing up and down the left wing.
He was clearly a very good player, but one of the concerns I had for him when he moved to the Bernabeu – with the additional pressure and label of being the world’s most expensive footballer – was that he’s a very quiet lad who might find it all too daunting. Now most men would struggle to make an immediate impact in a Real Madrid dressing room. And I don’t care who they are. I am sure Michael Owen, Steve McManaman, Jonathan Woodgate and even David Beckham found those first days, weeks and maybe even months nerve-wracking.
There is always going to be that potential to struggle and find your feet at such a major club, and the magnitude of his move must have added to the pressure.
A naturally quiet and unassuming character like Bale, who has never come across as arrogant or brash, was bound to find it even harder.
If that was the case, he is certainly over it now. He exudes confidence, which really came across in our interview and the chats before and after, and he looks comfortable. He looks like he belongs at Real Madrid.
The most important factor in all of this is that he looks like he belongs as a footballer.
He is not the sort of lad who is arrogant or shouts his mouth off, on or off the pitch, and he is still quite quiet and softly-spoken. But you can see he has self-confidence.
Chris Coleman cleverly tries to play down Bale’s influence and importance to Wales before every game. But he just seems to thrive on the pressure, and long may it continue.