Gareth Bale

[Jennifer]

Marry me? Please?

[Cory]

Very impressive, its a shame Spurs only use him as a defender come Prem time. He's far more effective up the field.

[Rob]

... no they don't :\ Assou-Ekota (sp?) plays LB whilst Bale plays AML.


I've been saying this since the season started - he's one of the best in the world right now. If he and Van Der Vaart can continue this great form and Defoe can come back from injury (or Spurs can grab themselves a striker to replace either Crouch, Keane or Pav. who should all be gone as I don't think they're good enough for the level Spurs want to play at) then they might actually be a serious title contender.

[Jerry McClean]

Certainly some cracking performances. I hope people don't get too carried away with him though and he can keep his feet on the ground. A true test for him will be when Spurs are in the knockout round and the opposition set a specific plan for coping with him.

Being an Englishman I'd obviously love him to fill our left side void for the next decade, but at the same time I'm glad he's avoided (at least until now) the ridiculous pressure the English press place on anyone English who has a good bit of form. Hopefully he'll kick on now because there's nothing like watching a player rip a defence apart by running through them with pace.

[Jennifer]

He's Welsh, mate.

[Duckman]

2 great games against an underperforming Inter side does not warrant all this retarded hype the media are giving him.  As good as Messi?  Yeah, if he dominates the Champions League for 5 years and wins it a few times then maybe.  Worth £50 million pounds?  Complete joke.

He's a cracking player with a ton of potential but the completely over the top hype from the English football media is so stupid.

Peace

Duckman

[Rob]

He's putting some World Class performances in at the moment, but he's not a Messi or Ronaldo just yet, but I think he's very, very close to that standard. Might just some really great form or he might actually be that good now..

[Duckman]

He is nowhere near Messi's level of ability.  He's had two good games in Europe.  He was marked out of the game against Everton and Messi would have Phil Neville on toast.

Just far too overhyped considering how early in his career he is.  Once he's running a team like Barca and winning the Champions League then he's in that class.  Until then he's just a good player in a great run of form.

Look at Rooney, Torres etc and see how quickly footballers can fall from grace.

Completely over the top hype which is more harmful than anything else.

Peace

Duckman

[Jerry McClean]

He's Welsh, mate.

I know. I was talking about the attention he would have received much earlier than this had he been English. But being English myself I could hardly come out and say that I'm glad he's not English if it helps him because that would be a lie haha.

But I agree with what's been said about the media focusing on two games (against the same side). It's obvious he needs to try and keep that up. He's not as good as Messi by a long shot but with him being 21 it's the possibility of him growing as a player which will cause his price to be so high if he is sold.

[Jennifer]

2 great games against an underperforming Inter side does not warrant all this retarded hype the media are giving him.  As good as Messi?  Yeah, if he dominates the Champions League for 5 years and wins it a few times then maybe.  Worth £50 million pounds?  Complete joke.

He's a cracking player with a ton of potential but the completely over the top hype from the English football media is so stupid.

Peace

Duckman

I agree, in spite of (obviously) being a Spurs fan. There's a lot of a media circus. I don't blame people for getting excited, but some of it's a bit much. Two games doesn't make you the best. Maybe this is the moment he went onto the map, maybe it's just that Rafa blundered tactically. I'm just glad the guy is such a humble sort of bloke. He doesn't strike me as the type to let this go to his head.

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

Two great games doesn't make you Ryan Giggs fuck off back to the Valleys until you have an actual reputation.

[Duckman]

Don't get me wrong, I think Bale's a fantastic player, had him in my fantasy team all season.  He should have scored 100 points by now given the media hype of the last few days.

Maybe they were all still all wet after the Rooney hypeathon but the whole reaction to 2 games is just the prime example of what is wrong with football journalism in this country.

Good luck to the guy but let's hope he gets the chance to develop into Messi and doesn't have to worry about being built up to be shot down like so many of his peers before him.

Peace

Duckman

[Rob]

first, I've seen Messi struggle against a lot of teams, he's got a huge amount of media hype as well.

Second, since these posts Torres has scored 2 goals against the league leaders.

And lastly fantasy football is all about assists and goals, which is pretty unfair because when a player like Gareth Bale plays his socks off and makes a lot of great passes and runs into the defense during a game, it isn't counted in points.

Also, lets not forget Spurs have 3 strikers that aren't good enough for Premiership football, another which is injured, and a team almost full of rejects. Van der Vaart and Bale are pretty much their only two players doing a somewhat good job at the moment...

[Duckman]

How has Bale done in the games since the game against Inter?

Fuck all.   

I mean, if we're basing it off 2 games, let's judge him on his last two.

Plus you've seen Messi struggle more in the last 5 years of playing at the top than Bale, who a year ago was going on loan to Nottingham Forrest?  Aye right.

Sorry Rob, you're getting caught up in the hype.  Bale and Messi are like chalk and cheese.

Peace

Duckman

[Jerry McClean]

Bale never went to Forest. Harry told us to fuck off when we asked >_>