Three and easy! Remarkable Bale revival a huge boost to Euro hopes
IF you’re a Tottenham fan, you might be wondering why Gareth Bale has left it until the end of the season to show his best form.
If you’re a Wales fan, you are probably delighted he’s peaking now with Euro 2020 on the horizon.
After a slow start to his second spell in North London, Spurs fans are starting to see the best of Bale again.
The Welshman’s revival under interim boss Ryan Mason continued on Sunday evening as he netted a scintillating hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Sheffield United at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Son Heung-min added gloss to the win with a goal of his own, but the night belonged to Bale.
“Where else can we start?” Alan Shearer (circled, right) purred later that night on Match of the Day.
“It was a magnificent performance.
“It was the very best of Gareth Bale. It had everything. Running off the ball, work-rate and his finishing was lethal.”
Having previously only started six league games under Jose Mourinho, Bale looks to be an integral piece of the Spurs puzzle heading into the final few weeks of the season.
Indeed, the front three of Bale, Kane and Son is finally looking like the prospect we all knew it could be.
Bale’s tally of nine league goals means he’s now found the net every 81 minutes in Premier League football this season, a stat which makes his lack of gametime under Mourinho all the more of a head-scratcher.
Indeed, he played just 10 minutes of football during the final four weeks of the Mourinho era.
Shearer’s fellow Match of the Day pundit Jermaine Jenas seemed equally baffled about his lack of minutes when dissecting the winger’s performance.
“I still believe that Gareth Bale coming to the club in the first place and paying him all that money, what’s the point in not playing him?” he said.
“Yes, he lacked a bit of fitness initially, but I’ve always felt that Gareth is the type of player that you just play.
“You keep playing him until he gets himself fit and he gets that confidence because he’s been a world-class player.
“And as you’ve seen, he’s ruthless when gets into that type of situation.”
Given Mourinho’s long-time admiration for Bale, which stretched back all the way to the Portuguese coach’s days at Real Madrid, his apparent reluctance to play him on a regular basis was perhaps the most confusing move of his stint in North London.
Some may feel that Bale simply wasn’t suited to Mourinho’s brand of football. There’s perhaps some weight to that argument, particularly in light of his meteoric revival since Mourinho’s departure was confirmed.
The 31-year-old has already hinted as much, to be fair.
After his man-of-the-match performance against former club Southampton, Bale hailed the
team’s fresh attacking intent in what appeared to be a thinly-veiled dig at Mourinho.
He then repeated that assertion after the win over the Blades, claiming that Mason had Spurs playing “the Tottenham way”.
He told Sky Sports: “(It’s) the fact that we’re more on the front foot, we’re closer to the goal and you’re able to score more.
“We’re playing football the Tottenham way.
“I feel good. As I’ve said before, I just needed to play games, to get a run of games and I’m doing that now.
“I’m happy and when I’m happy I normally play well.”
Mason was, understandably, happy too, and couldn’t help but shower praise on the Welshman for his performance.
“Gareth’s world class,” he told the BBC in his post-match interview. “We know that. “Anyone who’s been watching football over the last 10 years knows what Gareth can do in that final third.
“He showed that again and some of his finishes were absolutely outstanding.”
Such a pronounced turnaround in form will come as a huge boost to Wales ahead of the European Championships, but Bale’s future beyond this summer appears uncertain.
His career at Real Madrid, barring either the arrival of a new manager or a significant change of heart from boss Zinedine Zidane, appears to be over – despite there still being a year left on his current deal at the Bernabeu.
Could he yet stay at Tottenham? Speculation has been to-ing and fro-ing on that question for some time.
If Bale continues to display the sort of form he’s shown in the last couple of weeks, the questions will only start to intensify, although the interim boss behind his revival doesn’t seem all that keen on indulging in gossip.
“I think that’s a conversation probably at the end of the season,” Mason added when asked about the possibility of extending Bale’s stay.
“Our priority and our main aim now is Leeds.
“We’ve got a training week leading up to it.
“That’s the focus for everyone at the football club.”
Spurs are clearly hoping to have a new permanent manager in the dugout soon, so it’s perhaps no surprise that Mason would be keen to dodge questions over what might happen in a summer transfer window.
Ending the season strongly and earning a place in Europe is, at the moment, the limit of Mason’s briefing.
However, if he’s the man responsible for helping a world-class talent like Bale revive his career, it will clearly stand him in good stead for his own managerial ambitions – wherever that may be.
Spurs may well have more than one big decision on their agenda over the coming months.