What it will take for Tottenham to extend Gareth Bale loan

All the talk around town is fixated on Gareth Bale and the probability of Tottenham extending his current loan deal come season’s end. 

Bale is, over the last few weeks, showing signs, akin to the financial crash of 2008, of full recovery. For impatient owners, who’ve spent a small fortune on his thereabout £200,000 weekly pay packet, and supporters who banked on seeing Bale excel at Tottenham from the word go, it has been an arduous and agonizing uphill battle.

In truth, Bale has only been back in north London for eight, admittedly frustrating, months. The first couple of months, however, were a complete write off. Daniel Levy had acute knowledge of Bale’s conspicuously deficient fitness prior to his signing. It was always going to take the star Welshman time to regain the physical form required to play in the Premier League. Though most didn’t think it would take this long.

Bale has suffered from multiple seemingly innocuous injury setbacks in the last few months. Unfortunately, for a 31-year-old already struggling to find fitness, absolutely no ailment, no matter how minor, is innocuous. Every bump, bruise, sprain and muscle strain takes a heaping toll on a player who, even under ideal conditions, would find it difficult to regain full fitness.

None of this is news to Daniel Levy, who knew precisely of the monstrous financial risk he was taking when Bale put pen to paper. But Levy still felt the potential benefits far outweighed the incumbent risks.

And so too did most supporters. Almost nine months later and here we are, watching, albeit with tempered expectations and bated breath, a fully fit, confident and resurgent Bale.