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José Mourinho has claimed that Gareth Bale’s cameo for Tottenham against West Ham should serve as a warning to his team that no player is guaranteed their place in the starting lineup.
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The 31-year-old was restricted to 18 minutes against the Hammers on Sunday, and entered with the Spurs up 3-0 only for the visitors to mount a dramatic comeback to win a 3-3 tie.
Heung-Min Son’s goal in the first minute and a Harry Kane double put Tottenham on track to a routine victory, only for Fabian Balbuena and Manuel Lanzini to respond on either side of Davinson Sánchez’s own goal in the minute 85.
Moments before Lanzini tied with an impressive long-range shot on the final kick of the game, Bale missed a chance to score a fourth Spurs goal when he cut inside from the right only to shoot wide with Hammers goalkeeper Lukasz. Fabianski, defeated.
Bale’s return has been highly anticipated since he agreed to return to the club he left seven years ago on a one-season loan after being frozen in the image of the first team at Real Madrid, but Mourinho said: “The decision not to Starting it I think it was a good decision, a decision to show that he doesn’t have a beautiful chair waiting for him in the team and that he sits there the first time he can.
“It was a message to the team that in this team everyone has to fight for positions. He is very well accepted in the group. Everyone likes him and I think he likes what he found here.
“Everything is positive and the attention, of course, was not on him, he was on the game and he was on the bench for 65 minutes or so. It is a pity that he could not score that fourth goal that was a beauty and kill the I play, but that’s football. “
