Tottenham’s All-Time Starting XI
By Ryan Wrenn
Winger: Gareth Bale
It wasn’t like Bale played in a poor Tottenham team. Modrić was there, as were Ledley King and Rafael Van Der Vaart and Peter Crouch. Rather, it was that Bale was simply one of the best footballers in the world during his last few years in a Tottenham shirt. He rose above every player on the pitch.
Bale’s career skyrocketed shortly after Harry Redknapp moved him up from the full-back position he began his career in. Early on, his primary quality was sheer speed. There was simply no one on the pitch that could catch him with the ball at his feet.
As he aged and his game evolved, goals became more and more prominent. And not just goals. Spectacular efforts from outside the box. Impossible free-kicks. Amazing runs from the halfway line through defenses and into the net. He was – and is – capable of perhaps some of the most mind-boggling efforts seen in any era of football’s long and storied history.
That seems like hyperbole, especially after his relatively modest years as a galactico at Real Madrid. But at his height with Tottenham, it was beyond argument. He alone won a significant portion of Tottenham’s games, especially in the last year before his record-setting transfer in 2013. Such players come along very rarely, and Tottenham should be happy they had him at all.
Next: Striker