Читать книгу Gareth Bale - Frank Worrall - Страница 14

As the 2010/2011 season dawned, Gareth Bale must have felt the usual nervous excitement. He had enjoyed a good summer break, relaxing and unwinding after the last busy season. But this pre-season also felt different than previous ones – and it seems Gareth felt differently about it, and the prospects it held. It was as if he knew that it would be his defining season: the one that would make him a recognised name in world football, not just at Spurs and in Wales.

Perhaps that explained his even more vigorous approach to pre-season training and an even more determined attitude as he launched into the pre-season friendlies. Yes, it was as if his moment had now come on the world footballing stage – and he would do everything in his power to ensure he didn’t fluff his lines.

A Spurs source said: ‘You could see it in his eyes and in his demeanour when we got down to pre-season work. It was almost as if he were possessed. He was like a demon in training and it was quickly apparent that his game had gone up to an altogether different level. Almost overnight, he had become a superstar.’

That theme was picked up by lifelong fan Stevie Turner. He told me: ‘Yes, he seemed to have got bigger and better. He reminded me of Cristiano Ronaldo – he had that big, tall frame and yet could dance around the opposition as if he were small like Aaron Lennon. And he must have been working on his conditioning – he certainly seemed much faster when he got the ball. He had become a phenomenon – he was like a tornado running down that wing. Even before he really came to prominence against Inter Milan, we had been seeing all the signs of his remarkable development.’

There were suggestions that the change had also been brought on by a sudden elevation of confidence – and that this in turn had been brought on by an attempt by one of the world’s biggest clubs to buy him in that summer. The Spurs source added: ‘Gareth had been watching a lot of the World Cup and that whetted his appetite for the new season. It made him think that he wanted to be part of games like that but, of course, the problem is that Wales rarely qualify. I got the impression that he decided that summer that he therefore needed to play in the biggest games at club level – which meant the Champions League.

‘There was a strong rumour that Real Madrid put in a bid for him during the summer, but it was rejected out of hand. Of course, any footballer worth their salt would have been interested if Real came in for them, but I was told that Gareth was happy enough staying at Spurs – as they would be in the Champions League, anyway, and he loves the club, the manager and especially the fans, who have always been on his side.’

Credence to the claim that Bale had been targeted by Real Madrid in the summer of 2010 came a couple of months later from then Wales national team boss John Toshack. He said: ‘It was a big-money bid – it’s big money to me anyway. You’ll have to ask Tottenham, they know about it. Gareth is aware people are looking at him and people are interested.’

When asked which club it was, Toshack would only say: ‘I wouldn’t do that out of confidence for the people who have informed me.’

But given that the former Liverpool frontman had managed at the Bernabeu during two spells in the late Eighties and early Nineties, and still had good contacts there, it was widely assumed he was talking about Real Madrid.

Pre-season went well. Gareth had not let his fitness drop that much during the weeks away from the Lane. He was not that kind of footballer. Being abstinent from booze and not indulging in food binges made it easy for him. It was Gareth who scored the only goal in the final pre-season friendly: the 1-0 win in Lisbon over Benfica.

The win was another big confidence booster. While Spurs would have to qualify for the Champions League proper via a play-off, Benfica were already through.

So, what was there to worry about? If they could beat one of the teams who had already qualified in their own backyard, surely they could see off the challenge of a fellow qualifying hopeful in the play-offs?

Plus Benfica had beaten Aston Villa 4-1 the previous Saturday, so they were certainly no mugs.

Gareth was ‘very pleased’ with his performance and that the club had won the Eusébio Cup – named after the club’s most famous player ever, the brilliant Eusébio da Silva Ferreira – by beating the Portuguese giants.

Boss Redknapp had not been as pleased that his team were facing their sixth pre-season match. He called the fixtures pile-up ‘crazy’ and had pointed to ‘pre-season fatigue’ as being one of the reasons Spurs had crashed 4-1 at home to Villarreal in the previous friendly, just five days before the match in Lisbon.

But at least he was smiling after lifting the Eusébio Cup. Redknapp said: ‘It was a good performance, Bale and Luka Modric were excellent down the left in the first half and Jermaine Jenas passed the ball well. It’s now a case of trying to get everyone fit and strengthen the squad if I can.’

Gareth had made two key contributions before his goal. In the first minute he sent Giovani Dos Santos away down the left flank, but the Mexican blew the opportunity. Then Gareth set up Peter Crouch with a fine cross – only for the big hitman’s goal to be controversially disallowed for offside.

Dos Santos later made amends for his earlier howler by setting Gareth up for the winning goal on the hour. His cute back-heel giving Bale an easy chance to score from just 10 yards out.

There were now 11 days to go before the start of the season – and the big Premier League kick-off. Redknapp, his assistant manager Kevin Bond and first team coach Joe Jordan now stepped up the ante in training. Each day would be harder and more stamina-building as the three men pushed the players to maximum fitness and tried to build up their stamina. The intensity left several of the players gasping for breath, but Gareth Bale was not one of them.

A naturally fit, lean and energetic young man, he roared through the sessions and was one of the few who stayed out on the pitch for more work-outs and practice after the management team called time at the club’s training ground in Chigwell, Essex.

By Saturday August 14, Gareth was like a prize fighter who had been locked away training in the mountains for weeks – and who could not wait to get in the ring to work off the pent-up energy. He was truly ready to go to work and the fixture list computer had certainly thrown up a tantalising opener.

Spurs would begin their campaign against the team that had become their biggest rival for that fourth Champions League spot…yes, the club bankrolled by the Arab sheiks’ oil money, Manchester City.

The clubs had met just three months earlier in the vital Premier League clash at Eastlands that would decide which of them headed into the Champions League. Spurs had kept their nerve and outplayed the City millionaires, winning 1-0 to secure the Champions League spot that could bring a potential £40 million jackpot. Peter Crouch had headed home the late winner.

City’s directors had applauded politely at the final whistle but disappointment and anger lay behind their rigid grins. City boss Roberto Mancini had been brought in specifically to ensure the Sky Blues made it into the Champions League, and his failure led to many pundits doubting whether he would survive the summer. He was given a reprieve – but on the strict understanding that any subsequently similar failure would lead to his dismissal.

So there was much resting on that first fixture of the new season. Mancini knew he could not afford to lose – there would be no gradual easing into the new campaign for him and his under-pressure team. And Harry Redknapp and Bale and the boys wanted a good result to put down a marker for the season.

Given the heightened stress and pressure, it was hardly a surprise that the match should fizzle out to a 0-0 draw. But Italian Mancini certainly owed a debt to his goalkeeper Joe Hart. The newly-installed England No. 1 (after the World Cup debacle that had seen England crash 4-1 to Germany in the last 16) made a string of top-notch saves in the White Hart Lane sunshine.

The big stopper denied Jermain Defoe, Tom Huddlestone, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Roman Pavlyuchenko. Inevitably perhaps, the only man who had the beating of him on the day was Bale, but the Welshman’s left foot shot rebounded agonisingly off the post to safety.

Gareth gave City’s Micah Richards the runaround throughout the 90 minutes, and could have had a penalty at one stage when the big right-back floored him in the box. Gareth was also the villain of the day when he fluffed an easy chance when one on one with Hart a few minutes before the final whistle. But, a Spurs dressing room source told me: ‘No one made a big deal of it afterwards. OK, it would have won us the three points but the way Hart was thwarting us we never looked like breaking through – and don’t forget that the chance fell on Gareth’s right foot. If it had been his left, the boss would have been moaning like mad!’

Gareth was disappointed afterwards – he felt Spurs should have got off to a winning start – and the dressing room was a rather muted, frustrating place. Boss Redknapp was also convinced it was two points lost although he had the grace to congratulate Hart on his heroics: ‘Sometimes you can play that well and still not get a result. We did everything that we’d worked on. We moved the ball about with great style and you can’t ask for more than that. We couldn’t get the breakthrough but their keeper had a fantastic game, which was good for the England manager and good for England.’

But bad for Tottenham, as they aimed to show from the start of the campaign that their fourth place finish the previous season had been no fluke. They were handed a swift opportunity to show what they were made of three days later, when they travelled to Switzerland for another key match, the first leg of their Champions League qualifier – against Young Boys on their controversial Astroturf pitch.

Once again, the result was not the signal of intent Redknapp had demanded, his side going down 3-2 on the night. But it could have been a lot worse as Gareth and co were trailing 3-0 after half an hour in Bern – and Redknapp was pleased at least by the fighting qualities of his team.

The Spurs Odyssey fans’ website summed up the night brilliantly, saying: ‘The travelling army of Spurs fans thought they were in Bern to witness a historic Spurs debut in the Champions League, but after half an hour must have thought they had taken a wrong turning to Disneyland. By that time Spurs were three down to a rampaging Young Boys team, who looked like scoring a hatful more goals against a defence that looked like Bambi on Ice, never mind the Astroturf.’

Spurs were run ragged on the hosts’ plastic pitch but the two goals they scored – courtesy of Bassong and Pavyluchenko – meant they were still very much in the tie and that their dream of making the Champions League proper was still very much alive.

Gareth’s corner set up Bassong for Spurs’ first goal, three minutes before the break, and Pavyluchenko grabbed the vital second seven minutes from time.

Gareth was a relieved man in the dressing room after the match. He knew Spurs had got away with it; that they were somehow still in with a chance of realising their Champions League dream despite struggling with the icy conditions and the Astroturf.

Redknapp summed up his feelings when he said: ‘That was a great defeat if there is such a thing. At 3-0 we were staring down the barrel. We were in desperate trouble. We didn’t look happy on the surface, we were not confident in our play. It was a great goal from Pavlyuchenko to put us back in the tie, though otherwise he had a very quiet night. He can do that.

‘I had a nasty feeling about the game. I watched the players train on the pitch and watched them feel not happy about this and that. It’s not an excuse but I played on Astroturf myself and hated every minute of it. I don’t agree with Astroturf and I don’t think Astroturf should be used in a competition like this. Jermain Defoe and Luka Modric have both picked up strains and are doubtful for the weekend. Young Boys started the game excellently. They pressed us. We couldn’t get to grips with holding the ball. We didn’t look sure of ourselves and suddenly we were almost out of the tie.

‘It took some character to come back. At half-time, I said, “Come on, we’ve got a lifeline and we’ve got to go and get another goal”. Luckily enough we managed to do so.’

They had lost but had battled back – a theme that would become something of a constant as the season progressed. Spurs could certainly score goals, but they were guilty also of conceding too many of them, a failing that Gareth knew could well cost them dearly if they ever came up against opposition such as Barcelona.

But for now, even though they had lost the first leg, there was hope and belief that they would see the job through as they relaxed on the plane journey back to London.

Even Young Boys suspected they may have had their chance – and blown it by not making Spurs pay more on their Astroturf. Young Boys’ Enfield-born right-back Scott Sutter – a Spurs fan – summed up the feeling of anxiety in their dressing room: ‘It was a dream for me to play against Tottenham. As a player it doesn’t get better than this, walking out in front of a full house to play Tottenham – I could never have imagined it like this.

‘We tried to look for the fourth goal and we had a couple of very good chances to extend our lead. I just hope we can keep as concentrated.’

Gareth and the boys definitely had to keep their concentration levels high – no sooner had they arrived home than they were back training at Chigwell in preparation for another crunch game, the Premier League clash away at traditionally hard-to-beat, dogs-of-war battlers, Stoke City.

This would be the match in which Gareth Bale’s season truly came alive: the match in which he would be the two-goal hero after the damp squibs of the Man City and Young Boys outings. It would also be a turning point for the boy – the first time he had scored two goals in his professional career and the moment he truly announced himself as a potentially major star in the domestic game at least. Plus Gareth finally put to bed the embarrassment of being red-carded at the Britannia Stadium in the reverse match back in October 2008. Then, Spurs were at the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline, with Gareth being dismissed after just 17 minutes for bundling over Tom Soares in the box – a foul that led to Danny Higginbotham scoring for Stoke. The defeat was probably the lowest point of the Juande Ramos reign: after the match Tottenham were four points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table and had already lost six league games.

Fast forward two years and Spurs were now rocking and rolling under Redknapp and Gareth’s first goal in the win over Stoke arrived on 19 minutes when Aaron Lennon set him with a defence-splitting ball. Gareth’s first shot was blocked by keeper Thomas Sorensen but the Welshman bundled home the rebound. If the first goal had a touch of luck, the second was an absolute belter as Bale fired home on the volley with his left foot.

In between, Ricardo Fuller scored for the Potters, and they were then denied what appeared a legitimate equaliser when Jon Walters’s late header appeared to cross the line, but no goal was given.

Gareth was beaming afterwards, saying his two-goal salvo had iced the cake on ‘one of the best days of my life’. Gareth said of his volley: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever caught a shot as sweetly as that, It’s a great feeling when you hit one like that. The first one went in off my nose, but they all count and now I feel I am repaying the manager for giving me a regular run in the team.

‘I still don’t know if my role is left-back or left midfield but I always knew my confidence would increase with more games.’

Boss Redknapp was full of praise for him, explaining that this sort of show had been what he had expected Gareth to finally deliver after many previous days of disappointment – days when he had been forced to deliver ‘tough love’ to the Welsh wonderboy.

Redknapp said: ‘When I first came to the club he was still a baby. Every time he got touched he’d limp off the training ground and then be all right again in five minutes. I made him realise he had to be mentally tougher if he was going to make it in the Premier League. And to be fair to the lad, that’s what he’s done. He’s come on leaps and bounds and his confidence is sky high.

‘I just said to him, “C’mon Gareth, stop f*****g about with your barnet and toughen up”. Real good tactical stuff – but it worked.’

Harry admitted that he had worried about the boy in that demoralising period during which the team never won a league game when Gareth was in the starting line-up. He said: ‘That record was a burden for him – and a burden for me. Even Alex Ferguson asked me, “how can you pick him?” and I couldn’t. I’m a superstitious person and it was difficult to keep putting him in my team. But at the same time I always knew there was a player in there and there was no way I was going to sell him. On top of that he’s also a smashing lad. You couldn’t meet a nicer kid.’

But despite Gareth’s two goals, Harry surprised the press corps listening to his every word when he said he believed the boy would eventually return to left-back; that he thought he was more suited to that than the left wing. Redknapp said: ‘I think Gareth will be as good as Ashley Cole, the best left-back anywhere. Cole started out as a winger at Arsenal and ended up as a full-back and this kid will be the same. He played at left-back against Benfica the other week and I’ve not seen a performance like it. He kept running from deep, crossing balls from their by-line and then getting back. I can’t think of a better British left-sided player.

‘That left foot of his is amazing, he can run all day, he’s 6ft 2in and can head it and his technique is unbelievable. He’s got everything and I couldn’t even begin to put a value on him.’

Gareth had been voted Man of the Match against Stoke, with even Potteries boss Tony Pulis being heard to comment that ‘the boy’s a phenomenon; he could be world-class’. He temporarily basked in the glory of his performance and the adulation but, true to form, was hardly carried away by it all. Just as he had been forced to knuckle down and keep up his spirits and self-belief during his rough spell, so he would now wave away the plaudits.

Gareth Bale wanted to be a world-class footballer but he knew that it wouldn’t just happen by luck; he was a grounded lad who was always willing to dig deep and work hard for his success. And, anyway, neither Harry nor his team-mates would tolerate anyone within the squad getting carried away if they were singled out for praise. The Spurs lads quickly took the mickey out of anyone who started to act the ‘big I am’; bringing them down to earth with a bang…or by playing practical jokes on them.

But Gareth soon had another chance to show how he was developing into a class act, with the return leg at White Hart Lane of the Champions League qualifier against Young Boys. Their two-goal comeback had given them hope (and what could turn out to be key away goals) in the 3-2 loss a week earlier, but now they had to do the business in front of their own fans…or face an ignominious, early exit from the competition and the end of their dreams of playing in the world’s premier club competition (for another year at least).

Redknapp issued a rallying call before kick off, urging his men to smash the Swiss with an avalanche of goals. He said: ‘We’ve got to swarm all over them from the start. Our pride is at stake and we want to get into the Champions League proper. The place will be jumping and that will be a big thing in our favour. I wouldn’t say we are favourites. But the bottom line is if we can’t win, we don’t deserve to be in the competition. We have got to win – draw and we are out.’

This time his boys would make no mistakes, thrashing the Swiss 4-0 at the Lane and setting up a party atmosphere as they finally made the Champions League proper. A Peter Crouch hat-trick helped them on the way, with Jermain Defoe adding to the rout that saw Spurs advance 6-3 on aggregate.

Crouch may have scored the hat-trick, but it was Bale who, for the second time in less than a week, left the critics purring with delight. The Guardian’s Kevin McCarra summed it all up when he wrote: ‘Tottenham Hotspur ambled into the Champions League proper and looked as if they belong among the type of clubs who consider this tournament their natural habitat. Young Boys, by contrast, were entirely ill at ease, and had Senad Lulic sent off after he brought down Gareth Bale to concede the penalty from which Peter Crouch notched his side’s fourth…

‘The striker, all the same, was overshadowed. Bale contributed to each of the goals and, at 21, personifies a side that appears to have come of age. By now his left-footed deliveries are in the thoughts of all rivals, but no amount of planning nullifies the threat entirely.’

Gareth set up Crouch for the opener within the first five minutes with a fine cross to the far post and provided another for Defoe to make it 2-0 just after the half hour mark. Just after the hour Crouch headed home the third from a Bale corner, and in the 77th-minute the Welshman was brought down in the box by Lulic.

Crouch gratefully stepped up to claim his hat-trick and Tottenham’s fourth on the night. Afterwards the big man paid tribute to Gareth. Crouch had been voted Man of the Match for his hat-trick, but said: ‘It should have gone to Baley really, shouldn’t it? He set up all the goals and was our star performer. I’m always delighted when I see him out on that left wing…I know it means there’s a chance I’ll score, because of the quality of his crosses!’

Redknapp had now taken the club from the bottom of the league to the Champions League in 20 months – but he was determined they would not call success simply qualifying for the group stages. No, he wanted to get out of the group and into the knockout stages.

He said: ‘We’ll take on anybody now. We’re in the group stage and we’ll give anyone a good game here. We are a good side with good players and it will be a great experience for us. It’s fantastic. When I came here the dream was to get into the group stage and we’ve achieved that, so that is something to look forward to.’

Gareth and his team-mates were nervous but excited when the draw was made for the group stages, but were happy to draw holders Inter Milan as one of the three teams they would face (along with FC Twente and Werder Bremen). ‘It’ll be brilliant to get Inter down here at the Lane,’ Gareth said. ‘And to play against them in Milan is also something I’m really looking forward to. I have always wanted to play in games like this – now I am actually going to get the chance. I can’t wait.’

But there was much to think about before they played Inter. Like the Premier League clash with Wigan just three days after Gareth and the boys had seen off the Young Boys of Bern.

Inevitable really that it would be anti-climatic. After the highs of reaching the Champions League group stages, Spurs now struggled against a team they would normally expect to beat – and comfortably – at the Lane. But it was not to be…in a dismal, embarrassing showing, Spurs lost 1-0 to the Latics, their European hangover plain for all to see. The Sun’s Pat Sheehan summed up the worries that now faced Tottenham, writing: ‘Forget about Jekyll and Hyde. This season for Tottenham will be more like Jekyll and no place to hide. Brilliant when booking their Champions League place on Wednesday, distinctly average as they were beaten by the team who were bottom of the Premier League.

‘It was the best (or maybe worst) example of a wannabe top performer’s split personality. Competing with the best one minute, getting turned over in the worst possible way the next.’

Too true, and it was all the more unacceptable given that just under 12 months previously, Redknapp’s boys had crushed Wigan 9-1. Jermain Defoe’s five goals had eased Spurs on to their highest top-flight win – a win that was achieved without the injured Bale.

Hugo Rodallega’s winner at the Lane came after 80 minutes when stand-in keeper Carlo Cudicini failed to block his shot.

The defeat left Redknapp worried and he spoke unusually pessimistically after the match, saying: ‘We lack that bit of guile. I have felt it all along with us. We’ve got no real dribblers if Modric doesn’t play. Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal are stronger than us – that’s why they finish where they do every year. I came to the ground thinking it would be a difficult day.

‘But it’s easy after a good result to think you should rotate or you should do this. If you change the team today and go and get beat, and you leave Crouch out everyone goes “What did we change the team for?”

‘It’s no hardship to play a couple of games in a week, is it? It shouldn’t be a real problem for them. People turn up and they expect you to win, don’t they? We all expected to win today, but we knew it wouldn’t be that easy because they are going to come here and close you down.

‘Wigan gave us a warning when they missed two great chances and then we should have gone, “Okay, lads, make sure we don’t get done here”. But we were still open as a barn door, wanting to run forward and score, and we got done. The preparation was right, we’d heeded the advice about winning Premier League games after playing in the Champions League.

‘Today we just lacked ideas and the longer it goes it becomes harder and harder.’ I felt at the time he was a bit harsh – especially the bit about having no real dribblers if Modric was out. Bale would certainly go on to prove that assessment wrong as the season progressed.

A week later and Gareth was on the road to the Midlands in another match you might have expected Spurs to win. West Brom away, at the Hawthorns. But again, they would be thwarted, taking the lead through Modric on 27 minutes but ending up with just a point after Chris Brunt headed them level just before the interval.

‘Gareth and all the lads were quiet and looked lost in thought after the match,’ says a Spurs source ‘It was a muted, downbeat return to London. Two bad results in a week – just one point from a possible six and all of a sudden people are writing them off as no-hopers. But there was a feeling that maybe the point at West Brom wasn’t that bad.

‘Remember, they had suffered a Champions League hangover after seeing off Young Boys in the qualifier – now maybe they were suffering from pre-Champions League anxiety as they were off to Germany on the Monday after West Brom for the first group match against Werder Bremen.’

Spurs went with a 4-5-1 formation against Bremen, with Harry keen to pack the midfield once again. He knew that a defeat in their first group game was to be avoided at all costs: it could damage the team psychologically and could make qualification seem an uphill struggle.

Luka Modric didn’t make it after limping off at The Hawthorns with a leg injury but Harry still started with a powerful-looking five across the middle – Lennon, Huddlestone, Jenas, Van der Vaart and Bale.

Gareth was the man who answered Harry’s clarion call for his troops to step up to the plate as the big European adventure finally began. The Welshman is used to his team-mates converting his fine crosses, and was just as delighted when the hapless Petri Pasanen turned the ball into his own net from one of those crosses, on 13 minutes.

Five minutes later Peter Crouch made it 2-0 with an accurate header.

Everything seemed to be going Tottenham’s way: this Champions League looked a lark rather than a tough test. Then Bremen pulled a goal back minutes before the interval as Hugo Almeida headed home and a goal from Marko Marin a couple of minutes after half-time wrecked Gareth’s big night.

From a position of strength, Spurs had thrown away what could turn out to be two vital points when the group came to be decided in December. Gareth had given Clemens Fritz a torrid time down that left wing, but now returned home feeling a little disappointed. ‘We were brilliant in the first-half but let it slip and that is so frustrating,’ he confided to a friend on the plane home. ‘We need to be more clinical in finishing teams off.’

His boss was much of the same mind.

Redknapp said: ‘Yes, I’m frustrated, but I can’t be angry. That first half was as good as you could wish to see. Barcelona might be better but that was as good as Tottenham can do.

‘That first 42 minutes or so was the best you could ever see us play. We passed the ball and opened them up time and time again. But then we conceded a bad goal which suddenly brought them back into the game.

‘At 2-1 it gave them a massive lift and they got the early goal in the second half. But we had our chances with Gareth and Peter [Crouch] at the end but overall it was an excellent performance. We came here for an away game in a very difficult place to come and play.

‘They’re a good side, they had a few missing but we had four very important players missing.’

Both Gareth and Harry would need to overcome their frustrations – and quickly. Big Mick McCarthy and his Wolverhampton Wanderers were due in town four days after the trip to Bremen and they would be sure to pose a tough physical examination. Already they seemed set for a battle against relegation, so Harry Redknapp knew what his team would be in for – it was hardly the best of rewards after their strenuous Champions League efforts over in Germany. And a few days beyond that they would face another tough test…against arch rivals Arsenal in the Carling Cup. The games continued to come thick and fast…but that didn’t worry Gareth Bale one bit. On the contrary, he loved the challenge…the way he saw it was the more games, the more successful he and Spurs must have become. They were the thoughts and instincts of a natural born winner.