The Truth about Gareth Bale

In my fourth article for The Spurs Web I’ve decided to break my silence on the Gareth Bale ‘Saga’. I’ve decided to share the truth about the whole thing.

What is the truth about Gareth Bale? I don’t know. You don’t know. The newspapers don’t know and neither does the television media. No one knows. It’s a saga in name only.

It’s a machine designed to sell newspapers and get web hits. As a Spurs fan I’ve seen this year on year and it’s unsettling – I won’t hide from that. We wait on every word hoping to get a resolution to it. Suddenly Arsenal fans I haven’t spoken to in years start sending me text messages. I’ve got Man Utd fans talking to me about Bale instead of Rooney possibly leaving. I’ve got Liverpool fans talking to me about Bale instead of Suarez wanting to leave.

And it starts like this: someone, somewhere, thinks they need a story. They talk to a few people who probably share their opinions with them. No one knows who these people are. Then a reporter thinks up a headline. If you read the article it says that “X understands that….” Stop for a second there. What does that mean? It means nothing.

There are no quotes in the article. The player hasn’t said anything. Apart from AVB stating in a press conference after the Monaco game that he was unimpressed by the public comments by Real Madrid, the club haven’t said anything. But this is all you need to get things started.

Once it’s reported in one newspaper or on TV or radio – suddenly it’s open season. Other media outlets get itchy feet and write their own articles: “it has been reported that” – exactly, they are writing an article confirming that the original article was posted. And then the bandwagon gains momentum.

One minute he’s refused to play. Then possibly he was injured. Then maybe he was ill. Then possibly he’s refused to train. Then he turns up at training. The person who handles the SSN news ticker must have no morals whatsoever – it changes during any single day and they always claim to have known. We’ve had ‘Bale refuses to play amid transfer speculation’ to ‘Bale attends training as expected’ – and they take it in their stride forgetting what they said the day before. I for one have a longer memory than that.

The association with Spurs and transfer windows comes and goes every year. I have grown to love and loathe it in equal measure. I’ve never been a fan of any club that publicly taps up a player. I have even less time for journalism – if you can call it that – which is designed to simply sell papers and prove they have something to say.

So there we have it – the truth about Gareth Bale – no one knows what’s really happening. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the saga in the comments section below.

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