He’s just not into us

“Bring him home”

“The wages shouldn’t matter”

Sell the new stadium, why not? Anything to bring that petulant man-child back to our club, right?

Every season huge swathes on the Tottenham faithful lose their collective minds at the thought of Bale returning ‘home’. Whispers from brother’s friend’s dads who know someone who tiles Bale’s agent’s kitchen saying that this is the summer he returns home, back to North London. But now, now is the time for Tottenham fans to realise; He’s just not that into us.

Ask any Spurs fan who was the most gifted attacking player to bless White Hart Lane in the pre-Pochettino era and many will answer simply, Bale. Who could blame them? Bale came at a time when Tottenham were not gifted in terms of attacking talent; The seasons of Keane and Berbatov seemed like ancient history and Harry Kane was still aimlessly lumbering around our academy. Bale was that lad who couldn’t win a game with Spurs to save his life then he ended up winning games on his own. That midfield of Van Der Vaart, Bale and Modric will live on in the collective-consciousness of Spurs fans for a long time. But it’s time to move on. 

Football is a game of age-old traditions, steeped in romanticism, a place where working-class families can forget about the struggle of daily life and lose themselves in something they can’t control, yet allow it to control them completely. Bale captured Spurs’ fans hearts, he sprinted from his own half to smash shots into the bottom corner. The Milan Hattrick, his countless goals against those South-London tourists, it all seemed too good to be true. And like many things in the Premier League era for Spurs, it was. As soon as Bale started smashing ‘em in from all parts of the pitch the rumour mill began turning, just as the mill began to turn, so did Bale’s head.

Football may be a game for the romantic-at-heart but sadly decades of Sky Sports and billionaire owners have done their best to dent even the most optimistic-at-heart fans hopes. Tottenham fans wanted to believe that Bale was happy at Spurs and that he saw Tottenham has his spiritual home, but as soon as Champions League football and a bumper contract reared its head, he was gone. There’s leaving a club in search of a new challenge with dignity and then there’s acting like a child until you get your way. Sadly Bale chose the latter. There’s no case of selective memory in the Tottenham fan-base quite like the final season of Gareth Bale. Yes he was phenomenal, yes he scored goals that haven’t been replicated. Yes he scored 21 goals from midfield but then there’s the man off the pitch too.

Bale on the pitch was a champion, but off the pitch he was every ugly cliché the modern game has to offer; He refused to train because he didn’t believe he needed to. He jumped ship for Real Madrid as soon as there was a hint of an offer and even now he’s at his ‘dream club’ he has said he’ll happily not play football and spend the rest of his Real Madrid contract playing golf, collecting his huge salary.

What about this man screams ‘Pochettino double training sessions and high press’?

Bale harks back to a bygone era at Tottenham; A time when our squad had one world-class player in it, not multiple stars who can pick up the slack for one and other. A Tottenham that dreamt of finishing top-four and not one that expects it. Bale and that season is resigned to the history books and that’s where he should stay.

The idea of bringing Bale ‘home’ seems like it would work and Spurs fans can’t be blamed for thinking that reheating this soufflé makes sense. But sadly the romantic in us regularly clouds our better judgement. Bale has done little to portray there is any real connection between himself and Tottenham since he has left. The injuries, the wage demands, the general lack of enthusiasm for football. Bale is not a Pochettino player and never will be. There’s a place for idealism and romance in football but Gareth Bale and Tottenham Hotspur is not one of these.