Nice post.
Baines is immense going forward... but he's (IMO) quite weak defensively... there's countless examples over the last 2-3 years of people getting at him... but he's helped immensely by a hardworking, disciplined player in-front of him (just like how Walker is helped out by Lennon).
And as we all know, Bale is not that hardworking and disciplined player defensively, as neatly outlined by Gary Neville on monday night football yesterday. So I agree with you! Anyway, we're not going to be able to get Baines imho...
Back to the main man. BAE is an underrated player IMO. He has held down that LB position quite often all by himself - anyone else remember the interview he gave where he was basically like 'Gareth's a great player but he doesn't help me much LOL' etc?? - and OF COURSE he has his occasional wobbly moments (quite often brought on by his occasional tendency to overplay), but when you're defending a whole flank by yourself this is surely inevitable? He has improved beyond measure since at Spurs and was one of most consistently solid players last year and the year before, and when he's playing well his passing is one of the most underrated reasons why we can be one of the best possession teams in the league.
Maybe this is all an irrelevent debate anyway, as there aren't too many - or ANY - LBs better than BAE that we can realistically get. Just hope he gets back to fitness very soon.
