Gareth Bale was arguably one of the best players to grace the lilywhite shirt of Tottenham Hotspur.
So when he left, fans were devastated. The club lost one of the best players in the squad.
Despite the sadness around his departure, the club received a substantial fee from Real Madrid. Madrid paid £85million (BBC) for the star Welshman – a record outgoing transfer for Spurs.
It was clear that Spurs would need to splash their newfound cash on a replacement. It was always going to be difficult replacing a player of Bale’s quality. The club used the money to fund the transfers of seven players in the following years.
They would become known as The Bale Seven.
Out of the seven that were purchased, just two remain. Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela are the only two that have continued their tenure at the club, whilst for the others their career in north London didn’t eventuate to the same extent.
We look at the other five players that were purchased with the Bale money, and see where they are now.
Vlad Chiriches
His arrival from Steaua Bucuresti for £8.5million was a record transfer for a Romanian player (BBC).
Chiriches became one of the most impressive players during the 2013/14 campaign despite spending most of the season as a backup player.
He looked set to have a good career in N17, however, with the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as manager, his career at Spurs was shaken.
Pochettino did not award the Romanian with much game time and was eventually sold to Napoli in July 2015.
Where is he now?
Vlad Chiriches remains at Napoli after joining in 2015. His 2018/19 campaign was disrupted by an anterior cruciate ligament injury, ruling him out for most of the season (FourFourTwo).
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