Most recently, he's being hailed by the English press as the 'next Ryan Giggs' with regards to the manner he single-handedly fought defending European champs Inter Milan... In the first leg at the San Siro, Bale scored a wonderful hat-trick to grab some respect as Spurs lost 4-3 & in the home leg, he inspired Tottenham to a 3-1 victory which placed Spurs on the top of their group...
Such great performances have led to much speculation about his future at the club... Certain sections (mostly tabloids) reported interest from 'big' clubs about signing him next summer including Manchester United, but Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has declared him 'unsellable'... Redknapp believes him to be an integral part of their squad & hopes to build a wonderful team around him...
Gareth Bale was signed up from Southampton two years ago for a fee of 5 million pounds when Martin Jol was managing the club... Bale was not even guaranteed a place on the bench until this January, when he started put up a string of consistent displays on the left wing... Since then, he's never looked back & is now one of those players to have a guaranteed place in the starting line-up...
Inevitably, he's attracted the eyeballs of most of us United fans as the probable succesor to club legend Ryan Giggs... Giggs is all set to hang up his boots at the end of this season alongwith Scholes, Neville & VDS, so as a result big-name replacements are required... United fans naturally want a guy like Bale to succeed Giggs, maybe because of the fact that both are Welshmen, or both are primarily left-footed, or both possess the quality of destroying oppositions single-handedly...
But let us put Bale aside for a moment & just glance at the talent the club already has, one may discover that signing him up may prove absolutely unnecessary... United has players like Nani, Valencia, Obertan, Bebe, Morrison, out-on-loan Cleverley & Park (if you consider him to be one!) who are capable of plying their trade on the wings... Nani & Valencia were crucial to United's chances last season & since Valencia is out injured, Nani's playing on his favoured right-wing... Once Valencia returns from injury in February, it's very much probable that Nani will be shifted back to the left, since Valencia is right-footed & not adept to playing on the left... Again, Valencia's contribution to Rooney's incredible haul of 34 goals last season is of great significance... Plus we have upcoming players like Obertan & Bebe who are gradually coming into their roles of late as United players...
I do not disagree that signing up Bale would be great, but he currently is on contract with Spurs till 2014 & his current market valuation stands anywhere between 30 to even 50 million pounds!!! Sir Alex (reportedly) has around 100 million pounds to spend on replacements in the summer of 2011, but spending more than 30 million on a single player seems foolhardy to me atleast... Plus having Bale in the line-up would result in leaving out either one of Nani & Valencia, which clearly won't go down well with either of them... Competition for a spot in the starting line-up is good, but the presence of a disgruntled player is never welcome...
What are your thoughts on this folks??? Leave a comment or reply to me on Twitter @AbhinavCJ... You can sign up for the blog on Google Friend Connect with your Twitter ID too!
That's all Folks!
Yours,
CJ
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