The manager of Tottenham Hotspur, Jose Mourinho has insisted that the club’s loanee, Gareth Bale, would not be given game time at the club on a platter of gold.
Gareth Bale left Real Madrid on September 19, 2020, to return to Tottenham Hotspur on a season-long loan spell. Recall that he joined Real Madrid from Tottenham in September 2013 for a transfer fee worth €101million.
He has been relatively hot at Real Madrid where he has scored 105 goals and provided 68 assists in 251 games in all competitions. Despite helping the club to win almost everything in club football, the Wales international found it difficult to enjoy regular game time under coach Zinedine Zidane, mostly from the 2018-2019 season.
From that point, Gareth Bale started pushing to exit Real Madrid but his effort to leave the club was frustrated by the club’s board. When the club’s coach continued to give him lesser game time during the 2019-2020 season, it was clear that Bale was not part of Zidane’s plans.
When the opportunity came for Bale to leave Madrid, the 31-year-old right-winger had no choice but to return to Tottenham where he was idolized as one of the club’s greatest players. Recall that Bale scored 56 goals and provided 58 assists in 203 appearances in all competitions for Spurs before he left the club for Madrid in 2013.
Hence, when he returned to Spurs last summer, the expectation was that coach Jose Mourinho would give him more playing time at least more than what he was getting at Real Madrid. But that has not been the case. Since he arrived at Tottenham Hotspur, he has only managed to make 12 appearances in all competitions in which he scored a total of 3 goals.
“I cannot give players minutes, minutes on the pitch is not something I can give, so I’m not going in this direction,” Jose Mourinho said.
“We all know the difficulties he had for a couple of seasons, we all know that he arrived injured, we all know that even this season (has been) a little bit up and down with small things.
“The most important thing for him is to be consistent, training without any problems and when a player is consistent in training, high intensity without any kind of problems then the player is ready.
“Not to be given minutes, but is ready to earn minutes, and that for me is a difference.
“This week he is working every minute like everybody else at a good intensity and let’s see the way that he reacts to the accumulation of that kind of work and let’s see how he reacts by the end of the week.
“The match (against Wycombe) is Monday and we still have training sessions to evaluate that. It is also about his confidence. If he feels that the week that he’s had has had a positive impact on him and, on his confidence, he will play.”
The goal you've waited seven years for…
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 1, 2020
😍 @GarethBale11 is back! 😍 #THFC ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/x6Jr4bZb60
Gareth Bale’s season-long loan spell at Tottenham Hotspur will expire at the end of the 2020-2021 season and it is not looking like the Premier League club would attempt to extend his stay at the club any further.
