For a player who once had the misfortune to be labelled a jinx, Welsh wonder Gareth Bale has become a very hot property.
But one man who will be in no way surprised by Bale’s rise to the top of every European superpower’s wanted player list is Sir Alex Ferguson.
United’s boss has long been an admirer of the 21-year-old.
Ferguson wanted to sign the left-sided whizz kid while he was still a teenager at Southampton, but Bale instead decided to go to Tottenham in the summer of 2007.
And Fergie would still love to have Bale at Old Trafford now. With the Glazer family ready to raise United’s transfer kitty in the wake of the Wayne Rooney contract saga, the manager may yet get his wish.
If so, Saturday tea-time’s meeting with Spurs at Old Trafford represents a great chance for the Reds to take a close look at the youngster who has suddenly become the talk of world football.
Tottenham are certainly wary of other clubs making a move on their starlet, with boss Harry Redknapp issuing a ‘hands off’ warning within a couple of hours of Bale’s stunning San Siro hat-trick in the 4-3 Champions League defeat against Inter Milan 10 days ago.
Keeper Heurelho Gomes has also acknowledged that Bale is bound to be a transfer target.
“Maybe another club will come in, that is normal,” Gomes said. “But I think Tottenham will try to keep him. He is fast, has ability and is fantastic for us.”
It took a while for Bale to establish himself at White Hart Lane, as he attempted to make the step up from Championship to Premier League following his £10million switch from St Mary’s.
And he was not helped by the fact that he fell victim to perhaps the strangest statistical quirk in Premier League history.
For more than two years after Bale’s arrival, Spurs did not win a league game in which he played, a run which stretched to a top-flight record 24 matches.
It was no reflection on his ability, as he was on the winning side in 11 out of the 18 cup games in which he appeared for Tottenham over the same period.
But it was little help to Bale to be thought of as a curse, particularly as he also found himself battling injuries during his early period at the club.
The curse was put to bed when he appeared as a late substitute in Tottenham’s 5-0 win over Burnley early last season.
And as Spurs stepped up their push for a Champions League spot over the second half of the campaign, Bale became a regular first-team starter – initially as a left-back, but then to great effect as a left-winger in front of Benoit Assou-Ekotto.
Bale has thrived this season because he has been given the freedom to utilise his attacking instincts to the full.
And nowhere was that demonstrated better than at the San Siro.
On a night when Spurs as a team were utterly hopeless, Bale shone like a beacon.
The sight of the Wales international racing away from Maicon – arguably the world’s best right-back – had the Italian press urging Inter boss Rafa Benitez to sign him up.
Barcelona and Real Madrid are watching him with interest, too. Ferguson knows that he will face plenty of competition for Bale’s services.
He will not come cheap, either. Tottenham were wise enough to hand Bale a new four-year contract in May, upping his salary to around £50,000 a week – and may yet bump up his wages further as extra insurance against potential offers from elsewhere.
For now, Ferguson’s priority is not to sign Bale but to stifle him and ensure that Tottenham’s 21-year wait for a victory at Old Trafford continues.
Should United go back in for Bale, and how will they stop him at Old Trafford on Saturday? Have your say.
Fergie's Bale bond
October 29, 2010
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Hope we paly wes against him gary neville will get battered by bale , would be a great signing for us but cannot see him him leaving spurs and secondly we cannot afford him
Has to be better than Park.
Fergie has been tracking Gareth Bale since he was 7 and playing for Cwmbranu Juniors. He sent Lou Macari to watch him on numerous occassions and has a dossier on him as thick as an encyclopedia.
Didn't put in an offer for him however because there's no value in the market you see. Decided to sign some kid from the Portugese 3rd division for £7.4million instead.
He would cost more than £30m. But is the closest thing I've seen who is capable of replacing Giggs
we have a chance to sign bale when he was play at southampton.j.mifsud.siggiewi.malta.
bale is the same as james milner, a good solid player who is enjoying some fantastic form but nothing thats special.
Yes, but he chose to go to Tottenham. Your point is what?
I don't need a fixture list. I just work out who we are playing next by looking at who MEN link us with. Huddlestone and Bale? It must be Spurs.
50 K a week...welcome to City Gareth, we will triple that for you.
Collyhurst kid, Mancville (29/10/2010 at 15:23)
Collyhurst Kid, if you were one of the City supporters that I ran into the other day at the Tutankhamun exhibition that is in town, I feel I owe you a sincere apology. My other half, Reggie and I, took little Nobby, little Georgie and little Dennis to the exhibition as we felt they were lacking in culture and I don’t want them to end up spending their lives flipping burgers for the clown. My little treasures were not in a good mood, we hadn’t let them wear their red hoodies as we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the blue hordes that were masquerading as United supporters whilst running amok outside Wazza’s place the other week. Shame on you blues for doing that, Coleen and little Kai were very upset by all accounts, Coleen had to go shopping before her 23rd trip to Dubai this year and flashed the credit card so much for the retail therapeutic value that the plastic was overheating. Reggie and I discussed this and we hoped that Wazza doesn’t threaten the club again in order to have the money to pay those bills. If he does, I think we should sell him to you blues. United could use the dosh as the Daily Star reckons we are going for a Bayern midfielder with a long name in January. Given the problems with a nameless previous purchase from Bayern, I have my doubts but Reggie says we need to throw more money at Bayern to get someone to replace the injured player we got from them in the first place. Reggie calls it the circle of life, I call it a waste of money but there you have it. Maybe we could swap the German player for Anderson and throw in some “Fred the Red” toys and some hoodies, little Dennis loves his, I am sure the Germans would too.
Little Nobby is the eldest of our three boys and is now 15. I had to call him Nobby as he nearly kicked me to death from the third month onwards of my pregnancy. He popped out with a wonderful toothless grin and the doctor swears blind he seemed to be singing “Glory, glory Man Utd” as he was smacked on his behind for the first time. I was really going to leave which team he would support up to him. As a proud mother, I wanted him to be red of course but it was always going to be his choice. I knew he was going to be a “good ‘un” when the calls from his school started coming. Nearly all the complaints about little Nobby beating up children in the playground came from parents in the blue part of town. Bless him, I was so proud.
So, while Reggie and I were immersed in the exhibition, our three little treasures had wandered off, presumably to look for more modern entertainment. When the screaming began, I knew I had to get there as quickly as possible. It was too late, the damage had been done. It seems that amongst the 1000 replicas of the most important objects fashioned by the best Egyptian craftsmen, were some urns, cups, plaques and awards. Little Nobby had seen 4-5 teenagers in City shirts looking at the urns and so on. He said to them: “Look good and look hard blue boys, because that’s the closest your little club are going to get to anything that looks like a trophy for the next 100 years. Losers”. It was not Shakespeare but the point was well made.
My unqualified apology to all blues fans for this incident is genuine. It is not to ask you to spare little Nobby from reprisals, I just want to let you know he is a good boy deep down and I disagreed vociferously with the police when they said he was destined for the humiliation of an ASBO.
yawn
He would have been a bargain once. Now we run the run the risk of getting interested at just the wrong time. Rather like with Hargreaves, Berbatov and Carrick we would finish up buying at the least cost effective time.
All these would have cost a fraction if our timing hadn't been so off, only wading in mid contract.
Yet again a proof ( as if needed after Pique, Rossi, Forlan ) of SAF's poor judgment . Bale did not come or Utd/SAF refused to pay what S'ton wanted? SAF has achiecved a lot, a whole lot, but his mistakes are no less glaring and expensive. Read Hargreaves, Djemba, Dong, Manucho, Carrick et el.
I think Balazs Dzsudzsak of PSV would be more likely, given that Daniel Levy seems to have our number in transfer fee negotiations.
perfect sigining i would be very very happy to see him and sanchez this summer. as much as i would love to see bale at unite. i cant see it happning dont think we have that sort of cash. but if we manage to arrange a cash plus player deal that would perfect. carrick+park plus cash. maybe even a similar deal to berb. cash plus player on season long loan.
This guy SHOULD be at Old Trafford now. The only reason he wasn't is because Gary Neville showed him around. Influential as he is, he's hardly Mr Personality is he? He won't have done a great job selling the club, however, had Ryan Giggs (who he idolises) done the deed, I'm sure he would be a United player now. Oh, and Fergie was in the South of France at the time!
bale will be at gold trafford mark my words he will be there and we will also have snijder too rooney wuill be sold watch and see,pepe reina will be at gold trafford too watch and see.
I still remember why Bale chose to go to Tottenham instead of United - it was because Fergie was arrogant and did not even bother showing Bale the training ground and facilities in person, and instead focussed on "bigger and more important" targets in his opinion. Well done on yet another transfer masterstroke.
ps. van der Vaart was awesome yet again, but obviously at 8M he was not value in this market...