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It was on a crisp April night in north London, almost a decade ago, that José Mourinho first looked at Gareth Bale.
Bale was 21 years old, looking down the barrel of a 4-0 lost in Tottenham’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Mourinho’s Real Madrid and still gave the impression, as one writer said that night , that he had ‘borrowed one of the dressing rooms from Superman’s phone booth,’ giving Sergio Ramos a match to forget in the second leg.
The game had a few minutes to run when Bale followed a high ball towards the touchline and stumbled into a hug from Mourinho. The two of them stayed there, a little longer than expected.
Later, when Bale came in from across the field, Mourinho waited long enough to shake his hand, half hug him and whisper something in his ear. – Did he, for Christ’s sake? Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said when told this. Maybe we should report it.
Even when Bale’s first season in the Premier League was cut short by injury, Mourinho, the Internazionale coach at the time, included him in his Fantasy Football XI. He later urged Real Madrid to sign him, although they were ships that passed by at night: Mourinho left for Chelsea in June 2013 and Bale arrived three months later.
“He can change things, change a game,” Mourinho said of Bale, who is in contention for a comeback against West Ham on Sunday. Had it not been for that moment of the sliding doors, you feel like the two could have fit together, as Mourinho and Frank Lampard always did.
Bale did not find the same freedom he enjoyed with Redknapp at the Bernabéu because the place was a nest of snakes and Carlo Ancelotti, Mourinho’s successor, pleased a select few. It was never a meritocracy.
On the big European nights, when Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to be the center of attention, he expected the players to pass him; no Bale in the wing. And when they didn’t, they grabbed the tip of his tongue. ‘Center, center’, Ronaldo yelled demanding the ball.
Rafael Benítez remembers that Bale knocked on his door when he happened to Ancelotti and told him that this was driving him crazy. Benítez immediately took Bale. He promised that it would make him a better player and started moving him to a more central area. ‘Why are you putting it there?’ Benítez remembers that Ronaldo asked later. He’s standing in my space.
Benítez eventually found a place for Bale behind the forward in a 4-4-1-1, although late in his reign his best way of assembling the highly charged egos seemed to involve letting key players find their own space. Never, during those seven years at Madrid, did Bale find himself the one that the coach would walk away during a game and ask for a change. However, he has the intelligence to do that. In Spain, he was often dismissed as a mere athlete, although many were the times when he managed matches while his teammates took risks.
He viewed his second season there as a vital part of his evolution in this regard. ‘You watch the games and think:’ I don’t need to run with the ball here; I need to play one plus two there, ‘Bale reflected a few years ago. “I have taken things on board and, as a consequence, I have become a more complete player.” Glenn Hoddle feels Bale’s point about being a smarter player is significant. ‘He’s not just a runner (with) the ball, now. He is not just a player who can use his rhythm, “he said. ‘He has a sensational ability to pass. Play and look up and I think he will be that creator that the team is missing. ‘
Fitness is the biggest source of uncertainty, of course. No less than 15 injuries have kept him out of the Madrid team since 2016-17, although when the players returned from the confinement in May, the one who prevailed in almost everything – speed, strength, endurance – was Bale.
Bale / Kane / Son’s three forwards could be the best in the Premier League, according to Bale’s agent, Jonathan Barnett. But it depends on how Mourinho is going to play him. Gareth would like the freedom to do whatever he wants to do. Mourinho offered no guarantees when he said Bale has indicated that he prefers to operate on the right. “Does that mean that Gareth will always be used in that position?” he said. ‘Not. Because the most important thing is the team, and he will play where the team needs him. ”
Mourinho’s low blocking method – backing up, taking teams out and creating counterattack spaces – may create more potential for Bale to deploy his explosive pace than in La Liga, where defenses have settled deep.
Time will tell. But the first reactions spoke louder than words in practice last week when Bale sent a series of shots at Joe Hart. The audio caught the sound of Mourinho, purring with satisfaction, finally in the company of the player who landed on a bench so many years ago.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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