We can do well without Bale, but…

We’re all getting a bit sick of the Bale saga. Imagine how we’d have felt if we’d known from the start that discussions about his contract had been going on since last year?!

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts.

Does Bale really want to go to Real Madrid?

Who knows. One of the few things we know for certain is that Real and their publicity machine have behaved like complete *********’s (feel free to insert your own epithet here) for a considerable period of time – tapping up Bale and his Manager long before any official approach to Spurs. (UEFA please note, this is against your rules, so feel free to hand out some serious punishments).

Did Levy really promise Bale he could leave if we failed to get into CL and a decent offer came in – as Bale is supposed to have quoted?

Again, who knows. That sort of vehement attack seems at odds with Bale’s normal gentle demeanor. All we know for certain here is that Levy has stated publicly that Bale is not for sale at any price. Now you don’t need a long memory to recall Levy’s conversation with Luca Modric in similar circumstances. And we all know how that turned out. Levy is not a man to buckle under pressure and Bale’s manager, Jonathan Barnett, can moan all he likes. If Bale refuses to sign a contract extension, all that’s likely to happen is that Bale will remain at Spurs for another year on exactly the same money as last. I doubt that his value will drop much between this year and next. Still, I hope there can be a more acceptable resolution for both parties.

Should we hang onto Bale at any price?

This is a trickier question to answer. Let’s put aside the laughable 52 million pound bid supposedly tabled by Real. Let’s say the ghastly Spaniards do eventually make a formal offer of something around the 85 million mark. If Levy decides to accept this (I’m just being hypothetical here), all we actually have to replace are the missing 20-25 goals that Bale is likely to plundered for us. With Soldado, Paulhino and Chadli added to the team, we have to assume that this is very achievable. And having that sort of money also means we can look at other players previously outside our price range. Perhaps another decent striker and someone to bolster the defence? Someone who knows how to defend a bloody corner perhaps?

This is the argument propagated in the film ‘Moneyball’. It’s a pragmatic view of life without Gareth. It means that, should Gareth go, all is not lost by any means. Yet I feel for Daniel Levy in this, because whichever decision he makes he’s going to be vilified by a section of the Spurs fanbase.

For my part, if Bale does indeed go, I would mourn the lost thrill he brings to the game. I would miss the sheer joy of seeing a consummate athlete and currently one of the world’s top players at the very peak of his game, in a Tottenham shirt. You see I love the idea of us having a player that opposing teams fear and opposing fans covet. And watching Gareth turn on the afterburners or slam in a goal from distance, well it’s a big reason why I go to Spurs. Good luck Daniel. I hope you get him to stay…voluntarily.