Tottenham Say Goodbye As Gareth Bale Signs For Real Madrid

The deal has finally been completed after months of denials, rumours, wranglings and negotiations. As Andre villas-Boas confirmed in his press conference after the defeat at Arsenal Gareth Bale has left Tottenham and the Premier League to move to Spain and has signed for Real Madrid for a fee 0f £85m a new record. Thanks for the memories, Gareth.

Gareth Bale – on the move to real Madrid [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]Good Bye Gareth

Well that’s it then. The worst kept secret of the transfer window is finally out there officially and it’s all over. On Sun 28 July I promised not to write another word about the transfer rumours until the situation resolved itself. Now it has. Gareth Bale is a Real Madrid player after all, despite being only part way into his lucrative contract at Tottenham and saying clearly as he posed in our new kit on 9 July that he was looking forward to playing for us next (now this) season.

We are all so sorry to see him go but let’s let him go with our best wishes. No trolling, no nastiness on the web please.

This is what I said on Sun June 2nd.

“£85 million is a sum even I would consider, if Bale as his agent has said, is really open to listen to offers. I would so like us to build a cup-winning team around him. However, if he truly wants to go, that would pay about a third to a half of the cost our new stadium. If Mr. Lewis and Mr. Levy do consider such an offer, they need to insist on full payment, up front, tax paid.  No bits and pieces instalments deals thank you very much”.

Hopefully that is pretty much how it has panned out two and a half months later, except we have spent nearly all the money on quality new players.

Gareth Bale developed into one of the best footballers in the world whilst with us. We had the privilege of watching him grow, literally, and turn in wonderful performances, scoring fantastic goals, week in week out.  Even he was not quite good enough to drag the team into the Champions League again, or actually win anything, but he did his best. The fee we are going to get for him and our dealings in the transfer market has enabled us to construct a squad that on paper is capable of achieving more without him. This is despite some disappointment caused by one greedy little so and so stringing us along. Of course bitter experience has shown us success is not guaranteed, although I think we all believe it would have been so different if we had signed a top-class striker in the last transfer window, instead of waiting until this summer. At least we have addressed that now. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating over the next 9 months. We won’t be counting any chickens but even by leaving Gareth has helped us to improve.

Wave him off with our best wishes. Tell him he’ll always be welcome back. Leave him with fond memories of Tottenham Hotspur. Incidentally, I wonder if Daniel Levy inserted a buy-back clause for half the fee, giving us first option in case the homesickness starts to bite when his partner has the post-natals, the baby is screaming the place down, paella doesn’t agree with him, he can’t master the lingo and God forbid, like Luka can’t hold down a regular first team place, filling in as Ronaldo’s deputy and playing out of position? No, surely not. That’s not going to happen. Is it? Nah, of course not.

Good Bye Gareth. Thanks for the memories and the best of luck, seriously.  Come back, any time.

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