Bobby Zamora has claimed that Jose Mourinho’s decision to ease Gareth
Bale into the Tottenham team has proven to be the right call and praised the Spurs boss for his handling of the Welshman.
Bale was primarily handed minutes in the Europa League and domestic cup competitions earlier in the season and the wide-forward seemed to be lacking sharpness.
The on-loan Real Madrid star was seemingly hesitant to push his body too hard but that has all changed over the last few weeks, with the 31-year-old now looking more confident in his ability to turn on the after-burners.
In light of Bale’s recent run of form, some pundits have questioned why Mourinho did not hand the Welshman opportunities sooner.
However, the Tottenham boss has explained that he is in constant communication with the experienced winger regarding the workload he feels he can manage.
Zamora believes that Mourinho deserves credit for not bending to the media pressure by throwing the returning superstar into the starting eleven when he was not ready.
The former Spurs and West Ham striker told Ladbrokes (as relayed by The Daily Mirror): “We don’t know how Gareth Bale has looked behind the scenes for the majority of the season, but it looks as though Mourinho has just been biding his time and waiting for him to get back to full match fitness before playing him regularly.
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“Just because you’re Gareth Bale doesn’t mean you’re going to walk straight into the starting XI, especially under a manager like Jose Mourinho.
“There’s only a handful of managers who would be able to make a decision like that about such a big name. He’s been under a lot of pressure this season from the owners undoubtedly, but also from the fans.
“Everyone rightly expected Bale to be a regular pretty much from the offset so there were questions from the supporters and the media as to why he wasn’t playing.
“But Mourinho is one of the only managers who has the credentials and the trophy cabinet to say ‘shut up; I’m the manager and I’ll do what I want’, so fair play to him. I’m a big fan of Mourinho.
“Every training session your distance is covered, your heart rate is covered, they’ll know exactly how fit he’s been and if he’s not been hitting the numbers, Mourinho has been right to leave him out of the side.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Fans and pundits alike were quick to call Bale a flop and criticise Mourinho for not throwing him in. In reality, none of us were privy to the conversations the pair had.
The Welshman is now evidently much fitter than he has been for the best part of two years and hopefully, we can reap the rewards of that over the next couple of months.
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