Gareth Bale is starting to show his best after an indifferent season at Spurs, but what does it mean long term?
His second goal was reminiscent of the world-class player that left Spurs for the Bernabeu in 2013. Collecting a pass on the run, before checking back on the edge of the box and curling an unstoppable effort into the bottom corner.
This was a Gareth Bale that we simply haven’t seen enough of this season.
At his best, he’s fun to watch, explosive, and capable of the utterly ridiculous. However, for the past couple of seasons, he’s been but a shadow of the player he was. Given his form, it was not hard to see why he dropped out of Zinedine Zidane’s plans.
Now with four goals and three assists in his last four matches, the Welshman has hit form again. However, there is of course the caveat, that these performances have come against the likes of Austrian Bundesliga side Wolfsberger and Burnley. These are hardly the highest class of opposition.
So, what happens now? Bale will return to Madrid at the end of this season, with a year left on his contract. If he maintains this form until the end of the season, Spurs will surely look to keep him around. Given his wages and Real looking to bring in younger talent, it’s hard to see them putting up a fight for the Welshman.
If not, he will probably be farmed out on loan again for the final year of his Real Madrid contract. His own agent, Jonathan Barrett claimed that Bale wasn’t playing much at Spurs recently as his career was close to ending.
These next few months then, look crucial for the Welshman’s legacy.
Bale has provided us with some of the best footballing moments of this century. The bicycle kick against Liverpool in Kyiv. That run and finish against Barcelona to win the Copa Del Rey. His recent form suggests there just might be one or two more to come.
To see his career end with an ignominious loan outing from Madrid, to then be forgotten about in the US or Asia would be a terrible shame. For all football fans out there, we’ll surely be hoping for one or two moments from him before he leaves the game.
