[ad_1]
José Mourinho has turned the clock back in an attempt to move his tenure at Tottenham Hotspur into the future with Gareth Bale going back to the club left in 2013.
This is a pivotal moment in Bale’s career as he comes out of exile after what many consider a disconcerting fall from grace at the Bernabéu for someone who played a pivotal role in four Champions League victories.
The Welsh forward has been ridiculed in Spain of late as more of a golfer than a footballer after being totally sidelined by coach Zinedine Zidane.
However, in the context of his uneventful stint at Spurs so far, it is an even more important moment for Mourinho as he struggles to convince many of the club’s fans that he is something of an improvement over Mauricio Pochettino and is He faces accusations that many of his methods belong in the last game of the Premier League season.
To answer those questions, he has gone back in time to bring Bale back to Spurs, finally working with the man he tried to sign during his three years at Real Madrid and also when he was manager of Manchester United.
Bale needs this to work to guarantee memories like ‘Taxi to Maicon’ the night at the Champions League at White Hart Lane in 2010, when he destroyed Inter Milan’s Brazilian right-back in the Spurs 3-1 win, is by no means quenched by a second spell.
However, Mourinho needs it to work even more. And it needs to work fairly quickly.
It is not a watershed moment for a coach who has only been at Spurs since November, but the abject performance at the home loss to Everton the first weekend of the season appears to have sparked an examination of conscience and, indeed, a wallet hunt by President Daniel Levy.
Spurs and Mourinho seem to have taken a long look in the mirror after Sunday and decided that Bale is the answer to their discomfort.
This is a deal that seems to check a lot of boxes. A world-class player returns to the scene of past glories to restart his career while on display as a soccer and public relations coup, a statement of ambition, and a symbol of the pulling power of a coach still treated with suspicion by many fans. .
Look, José can still attract the ‘Galactics’.
For Mourinho, it is an opportunity to show that he can work and motivate the greats.
What’s not to like?
It certainly feels like the Spurs need to do something. Despite Mourinho’s combative words in the Amazon documentary ‘All or nothing’, Sunday’s loss to Everton represented more ‘Nothing’ than ‘Everyone’. The Spurs were horrible, Mourinho seemingly powerless to alter the course of events.
The Portuguese later complained of poor physical form and “lazy pressure” from his players, who seemed light years away from Everton’s sharpness with Carlo Ancelotti, while Dele Alli suffered the ignominy of being hooked at the break.
His pointy demeanor after the match sounded the alarms louder given Mourinho’s earlier when he started to go bad at Chelsea and particularly Manchester United.
‘The Special One’ has taken a few hits of late, but has previously shown that he can work with the game’s top talents and personalities, as he did with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Manchester United and Inter de Milan.
Now he must do the same with Bale, 31. Pulling a tune out of it will immediately make Spurs happier times and the manager’s life a lot more comfortable.
At least he has one fan in Bale, who said after replacing Pochettino: “Having Mourinho is an incredible statement from the club. I think he’s a serial winner.”
The sentiment will be mutual if Bale can rekindle those old memories and dispel the pessimism already hanging over Spurs and their coach just a week after the new Premier League season.
It’s also a major financial investment on Levy’s part, a move that will win favor with fans but will land on Mourinho’s desk if it doesn’t work out. Levy likes great displays of faith.
What is at stake, for Mourinho in particular, is very high.
If Bale is successful, it could spell a liftoff for both the mood around Spurs and Mourinho.
His arrival will add even more threat to an attack that already features Harry Kane and Son Heung-min and perhaps even erase suggestions that the manager is not just a pragmatist who wins at all costs, but can produce the attractive quality ( no trophies, of course) delivered. by its predecessor.
If it doesn’t work out, the Spurs manager could find himself swimming against the tide as his rivals invest wisely and seek to be on an upward trajectory.
If he can’t make an effective attack with Bale, Kane, and Son, many will wonder, with some justification, if the old magic has been lost forever.
In Mourinho’s defense, Spurs’ decline began after the final Champions League loss to Liverpool in June 2019, with the team spluttering the following season in a way that led to discontent Pochettino being fired.
Mourinho’s summer signings had been more cunning than spectacular in the form of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg of Southampton and Matt Doherty of Wolves.
Bale, on the other hand, is a box office, a signing that increases excitement but also expectations.
While it carries risks for Mourinho, it is clear that there are great potential rewards.
Mourinho will be convinced that he can get the best out of Bale, who will enjoy the opportunity to start over with a new coach and get his brilliant career back on track.
Bale, despite all the resentment towards the end of his time at Real, has been a great success at the Bernabéu, contributing decisively to two of the four Champions League victories.
He was pivotal against Atlético de Madrid in 2014 and then scored twice against Liverpool five years later, the first of which was the famous shot from above which is one of the great goals of any final.
If Mourinho can flip that switch once again, with Bale back in an environment where he will be adored rather than treated with suspicion, this deal could be the catalyst for what has so far been a disappointing moment for ‘El Especial’.
Bale needs this. Mourinho needs it more.
