Re: Gareth Bale
We can and will get by without Bale. He wouldn't have scored so many goals anyway if we hadn't had such a poor strikeforce, which is largely why he was given such a free role and which is why he ultimately will have less of an influx in a team like Real. The impact of losing him will be less than losing Modric, in my not so humble opinion. For all the player Bale has become, he doesn't create as much for others as he did when he held the left flank. And who can blame him with the poor chance conversion our strikers have. He won't be able to roam like that in a star-studded Real containing Ronaldo, and that is why he is worth so much more to us than he is to them. Even if Modric is arguably the best midfielder they have, he was never given, or even allowed to get such a role with them that he had for us. I cannot understand that they are willing to pay such an amount of money other that for the hype, the marketing value and their annual "marquee signing".
I would absolutely love it if he stays, but saying no to close to £100m would be ludicrous. The biggest problem would as many have said, be that every man and his dog would know we'd sit on a brickload of money. Football is still a team sport, and Bale is, albeit an important one, just a cog in the machinery. Replace wisely, but that would go without saying (although we fail to do so time and time again). I cannot believe that Levy, AvB or anyone have thought that a player of such quality would stay at Spurs forever, so this is a project that is planned a long time ago, I hope. We will never be able to fend off clubs like Real Madrid or even Man Utd for that matter, so the only thing that remains is that the clubs can come out of this with an ounce of dignity, which Real has made very difficult. Real and their associates are shooting themselves in the foot by acting like such pricks, but that is just how modern football works I guess.
The blame, if we can use such an expression, lies within ourselves for failing to make it attractive for players of Bale's quality to stay with us. To not strengthen the attack, showing some ambition in the past transfer windows is what has ultimately put us in this situation. Not once, but twice in a row have we now lost the momentum after sitting quite pretty before the run-in. Even though Chelsea had an enormous stroke of luck, we should not count on others to do the job for us. Stockpiling midfielders when every Spurs fan in the world knew that we needed strikers is not the way to go.
Certainly we have a limit on spending, and rightly so, but that is also why players like Bale will seek to upgrade his job environment given the chance. It has sweet feck all to do with the actual wage figure, they already earn more than anybody with their limited grasp of real life will ever do (generally speaking and not without a significant bit of prejudice). Throwing 150k a week in his direction will help very little, contracts mean nothing nowadays, Spurs cannot offer the status, the glamour or even the weather. If we should hope to keep such players into their prime, anything but CL participation and at least a remote chance at major domestic titles is a complete failure. We as fans have a lifetime to say "next year". Players haven't got that luxury.
