THE PREM ERA 59“Taxi for Maicon” rang the chant around
White Hart Lane. Tottenham Hotspur fans,
still blinking at their Champions League
progress, taunted Internazionale’s full-back,
who had been humiliated by Gareth Bale in
a memorable 3-1 victory over the European
champions. In an electric performance on
the left flank, Bale had provided perfect
assists for Tottenham’s decisive second
and third goals, having rampaged
past the Brazilian all night.
“Bale is phenomenal,” Maicon later
acknowledged. “We knew what he could
do, but he was impossible to control.”
Praise for the young Welshman that
night came from no less a figure than
Luis Figo, now on the back-room staff at
Inter. “Figo said that Bale is amazing, just
amazing,” Spurs manager Harry Redknapp
announced afterwards. “When Figo says
that, he has to be good because he was
such a fantastic footballer himself. He
said: ‘He killed us twice.’”
It was the second time in as many
weeks that Bale had taken on Inter
single-handedly. In Milan, his second-half
hat-trick had threatened to complete
a remarkable comeback after Spurs
had found themselves 4-0 down at
half-time and reduced to ten men.Bale’s emergence at the highest level of
the European club game marks a complete
turnaround in fortunes for the Cardiff-born
21-year-old, who joined Tottenham in the
summer of 2007 from Southampton for
an initial £5 million. In September 2009,
he ended an unwelcome sequence in
which he had appeared jinxed, having
playedin24leaguegamesforSpurs
without being on the winning side.
Comparisons with Theo Walcott, a
teen contemporary at Southampton, are
inevitable. But while Walcott has struggled
to impose himself physically on games, Bale
has bulked out into an outstanding athlete.
Bale has also been toughened up
mentally by Redknapp, who instructed his
medical staff to ignore Bale in training in abid to encourage the player to stay on his feet.
Bale’s increasing confidence has not
affected him in other ways. “He’s a down to
earth lad,” says Redknapp. “I gave him a few
days off after the game in Milan. I said: ‘Go
abroad’. He did – he went to Cardiff and stayed
with his mum. That’s the sort of boy he is.”
Redknapp believes Bale’s final position will
be at left-back, but whether that will be forSpurs remains to be seen. Redknapp insists
Tottenham are not a selling club, but he
may struggle to resist a top-level offer.
Along with prodigious Arsenal teenager
Aaron Ramsey, Bale is likely to form the
backbone of the Welsh midfield for the next
decade. “He’s the best player to come out of
Wales since Ryan Giggs,” says Redknapp.
Gavin HamiltonGARETH BALE
Wales & Tottenham HotspurHarry Redknapp
insists Tottenham
arenotaselling
club,buthemay
struggle toresist
atop-leveloffer