Yahoo News Getting the best from Gareth Bale — His former managers explain what makes him tick
How do you get the best out of Gareth Bale? After four Champions League titles, two La Ligas, a Copa del Rey, two European Super Cups and three Club World Cups, it seems strange to think that this particular answer has long since moved from Madrid.
Time will ultimately deliver a more measured assessment of his seven years in Spain, but the lack of sentiment over the departure of a player with 105 goals and 68 assists in 251 games was summed up on the cover of Wednesday’s AS newspaper.
“Bye, Bale”, it said coldly, before a myopic assessment. “Bale cost €101m and he has left behind a small collection of key goals, a long medical history and more off-field controversies than Madrid would have liked.”
This general air of dissatisfaction is one that baffles Bale’s former managers and mentors, especially in respect of his off-field behaviour. The biggest scandal that his former Southampton landlady, Julia Upson, could ever remember was how he and Theo Walcott might leave cups of water on the doors of team-mates inside the ‘Lodge’ that the Southampton trainees would share.
And the teetotal Bale’s wildest excursion during Wales’s march to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 was a lunchtime trip into the town centre of Dinard, their French coastal base, for a beefburger, chips and Nutella pancake.
“I am really surprised at how it evolved at Madrid,” says Harry Redknapp, who managed Bale across four seasons at Tottenham. “He was never a minute’s problem – I loved watching him. He is probably the best footballer I have managed.”
George Burley, who gave Bale his debut aged 16 at Southampton, concurs. “I am amazed at how things have fallen away – he always had this inner willingness to practice and better himself. He was a fantastic professional and very level headed. I have no doubt he will get back to where he was once he starts playing regularly.”
Chris Coleman, Bale’s manager during Wales’ golden years, also referenced the “unfair” way people have “picking him apart” over recent years in Madrid. The counter argument is that Bale has not engaged sufficiently, especially in perfecting his Spanish, that he has been excessively preoccupied with golf, too easily injured and that he delivered only intermittently. The context of a price-tag that exceeded Cristiano Ronaldo naturally only magnified those complaints.
One obvious pattern is that, while Bale generally is low maintenance and lives an uncomplicated life, he can be stubborn and the best has generally been extracted by managers with flexibility in a more ‘arm-around-the-shoulder’ approach.
Burley’s only real point of disagreement with Bale was that, after one full season with him in the Championship, his development would have been best served by another year before moving to Tottenham or Manchester United. Bale was only 18, but would not be dissuaded and got his move.
Redknapp instantly felt that he needed toughening up and there were some early frustrations. “It felt like Gareth would get a little knock pretty much every day in training and be limping off on one leg with the physio running over,” he says. “He would also be messing about with his hair, wetting it and putting his clips in. Eventually I told the physio to leave him when he went down unless it was obviously serious. We had to tease the combative streak out of him.”
Redknapp also found a player who, while not naturally assertive, grew into a leader who could handle his increasingly talismanic status in the team. That was also evident under Coleman, another manager who placed a big emphasis on creating a relaxed and fun environment. Pool, table-tennis, darts and PlayStation were staples of any Wales training camp and Bale was always at the centre of everything. It is hard to imagine him happier than during Euro 2016 and it was noticeable that, although not the captain, it became a routine that he would spend an hour addressing the media before every game. Coleman’s style of man-management has similarities with Burley and Redknapp, as well as Carlo Ancelotti, with whom Bale enjoyed considerable early success at Madrid.
Graham Hunter, the Spain-based football journalist, agrees that Bale has generally most obviously excelled under managers who let him be who he is. Although the relationship with Zinedine Zidane obviously did crumble, Hunter also stresses the wider context of Real and how, for some years, Bale had been viewed as an increasingly tradable asset. That backdrop then became a vicious cycle once it became clear that Bale would not be forced out according to Real’s convenience, such as when Kylian Mbappe was available, or when he dug in over suggestions that too much golf was not conducive to optimum athletic performance on a football pitch.
It all prompts an intriguing question about how Bale will now gel with Mourinho, who is hardly himself renowned for a light touch or sensitivities towards players who might be carrying injuries. Against that, we know that Mourinho has long wanted to sign Bale and that the 31-year-old’s pace and ability to run at teams should be perfectly suited to the counter-attacking philosophy of his best teams.
Redknapp, for one, is in no doubt Bale’s presence ought to be transformative for Mourinho’s Tottenham. “It’s some forward line: Bale, Kane and Son,” he says. “If you can't be getting up there in the top four with those three, then you’ve got a problem. I am sure we will see some spectacular goals. Tottenham need an injection of something and he’s just the man to give it to them.”
