It wasn't Spain, it wasn't Real Madrid, it wasn't
Zidane
.
It was
Bale
.
And while there could be some trace of doubt, reality has buried it.
With the first three determining factors gone, changed by a much more favorable context for his emotional stability, by England, Tottenham and
Mourinho
, the Welsh forward remains anchored in the nostalgia of what he was.
Because what is today has nothing to do with the enormous talent that the Cardiff footballer exhibited a long time ago.
The cold data speaks for itself.
In the Premier League, after 18 days, he adds just 160 minutes divided into four games, one only as a starter.
No less than 19 players on the Tottenham squad play more than him.
In the sum of all the competitions, his baggage rises to 623 minutes, only the 19th most of the London team.
Three goals, one against Brighton in the Premier, another against LASK in the Europa League and another against Stoke in the League Cup complete his poor service record from the first half of the season.
"I cannot give him minutes," argues Mourinho to explain the ostracism of Bale, a substitute without minutes in the last two Premier games.
Since November 8, the day of his only league title against West Bromwich Albion, the Welshman has only played 45 minutes in the Premier, in the defeat against Leicester (0-2) on December 20.
Kane, Son, Lo Celso, Bergwijn, Lucas Moura
and
Lamela
are ahead of him in the plans for 'Mou'.
And none of them charge more than him, not even
Kane
, a franchise player of the 'spurs'.
Physical problems, of course, have also played a role in Bale's terrible season.
He arrived in London injured in one knee and could not be released until 18 October;
in mid-December he missed another two games due to illness (not from Covid);
And he was every Christmas, an intense time in English football, off due to a problem in his calf.
In any case, the physical section is only complementary in the analysis of his situation, since he has been available for 10 Premier matches and has only played a minute in four of them.
His space to gain Mourinho's trust in this first half of the season had to be the Europa League, a competition that English clubs often use to carry out massive rotations and put their substitutes in tune.
He played all six group stage matches, all of them as a starter, but only managed one goal of the 15 that Tottenham scored.
Carlos Vinicius, who has played 150 minutes less than him in all competitions, has already scored six goals, twice that.
His astronomical salary (between 15 and 20 million euros net) does not correspond to his performance in the field, as it already happened in his last seasons at Real Madrid.
His loan to Tottenham was a good deal for the Whites and especially for Zidane, who ended up seeing him as a problem for the dressing room rather than as a solution.
Time, at least for the moment, is proving him right.
The problem for Madrid is that it does not look like the play is going to come out round.
Tottenham can stay in property with Bale from June, but according to 'The Times' they have already decided not to do so unless their performance improves drastically.
That would mean that Bale would have to return to Spain in the summer, given that his contract with Madrid expires in 2022, and he would also do so as an extra-community, a consequence of 'Brexit'.
Still 31 years old, what was one of the best attackers in the world has ended up becoming a problem that nobody wants.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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