Gareth Bale should be an inspirational figure to all those Premier League players struggling to get the recognition they deserve or into their first-team line-up, after the Tottenham man transformed a number of fans and pundits perception of him last season with a string of marvellous performances and hard-work.
The left-back was a big target of heavy criticism by many Premier League fans and pundits in the beginning of last season’s campaign due to poor performances. Some critics in the media even tried to portray that Bale was the cause of Spurs’ bad start to the season last year. It came to fans attention that whenever Bale started for the North London outfit, Spurs couldn’t pick up a win. It certainly looked that way, and as a result, Bale was made to look the village idiot at the Lane…even though it was a coincidental incident.
The Welsh international really struggled to find his feet afterwards and was dropped by Harry Redknapp in order to give the player a bit of time to get his head right. The 20-year-old certainly pulled this off and somehow dragged himself out of the rut and resurrected his career at White Hart Lane.
Bale quickly re-established himself in Redknapp’s first-team plans and showed how rapidly things can change with the right input of desire and determination. The left-sided player certainly proved his critics wrong and stuck a big two fingers up (Not literally of course) at the media who labelled him a flop and made him the Spurs scapegoat in the earlier part of last season.
Gareth Bale was undoubtedly the lilywhites best player in the latter stages of last season, and many would believe, that without his late surge, the North London side may have fallen short of the fourth spot.
As well as keeping his doubters quite, Bale has shown that any player can improve with the right attitude and level of commitment. Players in similar positions (as Bale was last year) should take a closer look at how the Spurs man revived his status as a regular. Martin O’Neill highlighted Gareth Bale as an encouraging figure for any out-of-favour player out there to take note of. Speaking to the Sun newspaper this week, the Villa boss paid tribute to Bale and pinpointed the Welshman as a source of enthusiasm for any ostracized player in the country:
“Look at how Harry Redknapp has gone and re-entrusted players again like Gareth Bale. He was out of the picture at Tottenham, then came back into the side and did brilliantly. That sort of things happens at every club and I keep saying this to some of our players who have obviously been disappointed at not playing. It changes so quickly.”
With time perceptions can be altered, and in Bale’s case it seems that the Spurs no.3 has turned from zero to hero and silenced his critics once and for all.
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