Gareth Bale

Has he played against Ivanovic yet?

ha

one or t'other dont finish that game imo

Ivanovic in third round with TKO

LJ doesn't have a display name right now does he?

hmph

the nation's least favourite right back

gareth bale

the point about the quality of bale's crossing is quite true...like to be fair, you see huge volumes of those low crosses where the commentator is all "just needed a touch" or whatever, but not actually a huge amount where someone scores.

he picks his man, look at those two balls in tonight

Has any player gone from laughing stock to world class so quickly? I still considered him a busted flush back in January and then suddenly woah.

never considered him laughing stock tbh. misused and injured.

The 'Bale curse' thing was a bit freaky. I knew he was better than that but didn't suspect he'd ever get this good.

http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

Nice contrast between the sublime weight/trajectory of the delivery and the scrappy conversion.....Bale reverts to spectator as soon as it leaves it foot, just ~inviting~ Crouch to try and find some way to fuck up a cross that good.

Crouch did quite well there with his movement imho

but then he knew *exactly* what sort of ball he'd be getting I suppose, which is Bale's genius

crouch did well for that goal, but still not good enough tonight again.

As of last season I would have said Vargas > Bale although I haven't seen Viola this season and I guess he/they suck now?

he'd cause alves as many, tho. rate maicon as better than alves.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:03 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw maicon has been dropped from the brazil team because he has been out of sorts since the start of the world cup (classic goal excepted). only nakh seems to have been thinking in terms of form opposition and trying not to overrate bale's game.

I really do like watching this guy play. He's a bit of a mix between Kuyt and Ronaldo (minus step overs) imo with maybe a bit of Pires thrown in. Everything about his game, or when I've seen him in the past year is about being effective - there is nothing indulgent in his game at all. Cannot wait to see him in front of a left back who isn't a liability.

Also take a moment to think about the Welsh midfield in 5 years.

Ledley* Collison** Ramsey Bale

maybe more exciting than

Johnson Rodwell Wilshere Walcott

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update.
**when he leaves WHU and joins a proper team - would love to see him in the last years of Fergie tbrr.

OFF TOPIC but all i could notice in this gif is his dick flopping everywhere -- dude needs to strap that thing down imo

http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

awesome at football, hasn't yet been accused of rape* and has a large penis - poor boy has it too hard.

*will come eventually, this week it was klasnic.

that's not his willy, it's jermain defoe

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update

Jury still out on Joe Ledley in Scotland - he's had to play a few games at left back (where he dropped no major clangers that I recall) since Neil Lennon didn't believe us all when we said Charlie Mulgrew was gash. Signing an actual real left back and injuries to Scott Brown and Beram Kayal have seen him playing midfield again and forming what looks like a decent partnership with Ki Sung Yung, but no idea how long that'll last when the other two come back. I don't think Scottish football will ruin him so much as signing for a team with 8 zillion midfield options though.

There you go. You can go back to talking about Gareth Bale now.

Ledley has never impressed outside of one or two performances imo. Not impressing still puts him ahead of a lot of the squad, but I still wouldn't say he's looked like anything to write home about.

Also take a moment to think about the Welsh midfield in 5 years.

Ledley* Collison** Ramsey Bale

maybe more exciting than

Johnson Rodwell Wilshere Walcott

imo.

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update.
**when he leaves WHU and joins a proper team - would love to see him in the last years of Fergie tbrr.

― gazza bale flame (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 06:45 (4 hours ago)

Those players are technically good enough (Ledley excepted) that they might not have to play 4-4-2....

Jordan Henderson also looks interesting.

Take Bale out of that Wales midfield and it ain't all that.

is Henderson Welsh? Well him instead of Ledley makes that even better.

Ramsey > Bale tyvm

And I overlooked in the op how dangerous Bale could be on the right flank cutting inside. Not sure if he's played there yet?

david noble, thudd

No Henderson is English.....but Rodwell/Henderson/Wilshere is a promising midfield.

ramsey is not better than bale...for god's sake.

Well now he's broken, sure. But those two months he ran the Arsenal midfield when Cesc was out > Wilshere tbh, and Wilshere > Bale.

Nordtveit > Lúcio > Djourou > Piqué

why do you even say this rubbish...do you think it's a global conspiracy that bale is getting huge attention for his recent performances and nothing of the kind happened ramsey during that time? ramsey isn't even guaranteed to be a top player yet...

In fairness, Phil Neville shut Bale out of the game completely the other week.

i agree bale is overhyped...it's actually pretty annoying. but i think he's done far more to deserve hype than aaron ramsey.

I asked a couple of Welsh guys about Ramsay/Bale a year or so ago, and they all said Ramsay was much the better. So we'll see.

Bale is an exciting player, at the moment against certain teams who aren't used to playing against him, leastways.

But to be talked of in terms of world class is ridiculous. He's not even the best left-sided player in the Premier League. Patrick Barclay tweeted last night that he was the second best player in the world after Xavi. That's ridiculous.

Be interested to see how Chelsea deal with him: try Boswinga and go pace against pace, or get Ivan to kick him early and kick him good.

When you think about it Aaron Ramsey is basically a poor man's Justin Edinburgh.

Rafael shut Bale out of the game pretty effectively on Saturday and Rafael is no Maicon. But he's very difficult to play against all the same, but yeah Malouda > Bale for now.

Bale is just pure adrenalin though. Got to like that, grudgingly.

bale a year ago? Well, nothing's changed since then, definitely.

Wilshere's looked good lately, but not as good as bale imo. But at least it's not nonsense to call that one, one way or the other. Ramsay was better than injured, unconfident and out of position bale- so was koncheskey ffs

I think the interesting thing is whether the success of Walcott and the emergence of Bale indicates Clive Woodward's spell at Southmapotn FC was a success, and whether any other teams would be wise to bring him back in.

ramsey has done v little/nothing yet in his career. bale has done not a huge amount but has had two huge performances in big high profile games...as i said, it's overhyped but ramsey will get the same treatment when he rips inter milan apart over two games as well, on the back of a stretch of v v good form.

walcott never developed as a footballer at all at southampton, famously so really. And you dont teach pace.

Bale at just gone 21 is as good as and possibly better than Cristiano Ronaldo was at just gone 21. Admittedly Ronaldo then shot off into the distance straight after the 2006 World Cup.

Wilshere is the most interesting of these players, will start a thread about him later if someone else doesn't. Bale may be hyped but he's already proven himself to be at least a very good player.

Cristiano Ronaldo at 21 led Portugal to a world cup semi-final....no comparison there.

And you dont teach pace.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 12:44 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

First yard is in the head, that's something you can teach.

Yeah but that was sort of the making of him. Obviously Bale isn't anywhere near the quality of post-06 Ronaldo but at this stage of his development he's getting close to pre-WC2006 Ronaldo. And Ronaldo had several more years of regular Premiership football under his belt.

NB I do not actually think Bale will ever be THAT good, given how superhuman Ronaldo's development was after he hit 21.

not to aaron lennon

not usually one to cosign ahh's wild claims but ramsey really is (was, whatever) a terrific footballer and has been ignorantly dismissed here.

gerrard is a hell of a player, the long passes would have been crushed out of him elsewhere but they show passion and desire and plus he can kick it really hard and these are v good things in the british isles obv

ancelotti's madrid will be such a different team to tottenham of the last few years that i imagine him becoming yet another sort of player, that he will be broken down and remade in a different image

he just isn't going to be able to play with the license he has had for most of the last two seasons

Gareth Bale has a slipped disc on the L5 -S1 vertebrae and a bulge on the L4 -L5. This amounts to a significant injury which, at least for the moment, isn't giving him trouble and won't prevent him from playing for the foreseeable future. However, further down the line it may force him off the pitch and, depending on how things progress, may even require surgery.

Real Madrid medical staff diagnosed the injury on 2nd September, the day of his official presentation at the club. The MRI scan left no room for doubt: a slipped disc on the L5 -S1 vertebrae and a bulge, which is the beginnings of another, on L4 -L5. An injury that set alarm bells ringing at the Sanitas clinic in La Moraleja, just outside Madrid, and from where Florentino Pérez was informed of the injury hiding in the former Tottenham player's spine.

Bale said he hadn't noticed any pain at all and claimed he had never had problems in that area before.

There was no going back on the signing. The deal was done and Florentino Pérez, who was now up to speed on Bale's secret, did not object. The € 91million deal was going to go ahead as planned and neither hell nor high water would prevent Bale from running onto the pitch at the Bernabeú in a Nº 11 shirt, in front of a 40,000 strong crowd.

Since he was in no pain, the club chose not to dwell on it. But those who saw that MRI scan know all too well that they may face a very serious problem with the Welsh player at any moment...

levy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvW6qiTkZdw

In response to the information that the newspaper Marca has published today regarding the player Gareth Bale, Real Madrid would like to state the following:

1. The information published, claiming that the player has a slipped disc on the L5-S1 vertebrae and a bulge on two others, is completely false.

2. The player does not have a slipped disc, as the club's medical services stated clearly to the newspaper before the information was published. Surprisingly, the version the doctors offered this media outlet on Thursday 10 October has been omitted.

3. The player Gareth Bale has a small chronic disc bulge, which is extremely common among football players and by no means prevents him from carrying out his professional activity normally.

http://i.imgur.com/iEpb7Uu.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzxmUSEYk8

s'alright I suppose

Gareth Fail.

my friend insisted on showing me this goal on his phone

lol

valdano was negging him in midweek, some of the madrid press seem to be ever so slightly disappointed that all he does is run really fast and finish with impeccable technique from ever angle, this is what you get

10 in 17 in the league despite arriving injured and getting injured again midseason

i'm content seeing him have a quietly accomplished first season while he acclimatizes & gets over his injuries. it's so rare to see a successful british export, i've ended up wanting to see him excel despite myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUln6RCw4NU

http://i.imgur.com/8OQprPI.jpg

"bale makes hay"
About 13,700 results

there are some pissy comments bout the awkward looking right footed touch that brings the ball into the box

clumsy as it looks, it ensures he is clearly in front of barta so that any attempt to get the ball is a certain penalty, and gives him a better shooting angle

the 'speed merchant' calumnizers misread the sort of calculation that allows a player to eke everything possible from his athleticism, being fast is only half the story

http://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/gareth-bale-goal-barcelona-real-madrid-copa-del-rey-2014-final.gif

bottle job from tata there tbh

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/11/268A5A1100000578-0-image-a-60_1426085641539.jpg

Gareth Bale was berated as he left the Santiago Bernabeu after Real Madrid's 4-3 defeat by Schalke on Tuesday night

That's one for the "things you always sing to a tune" thread, because the next line is "PC McGarry Number 452".

i'm afraid seven nation army has that cadence sewn up. it's a shame

Haha I immediately sang that as Seven Nation Army without even questioning it, it was just an automatic reaction.

Reading this thread back was kinda fun.

Ramsey has been a mixture of crocked/shit this season huh?

he was terrible against schalke alright but even as a RW under avb that was purely a nominal ruse to cut in and shoot/score, the last night he was going wide and crossing off his right and it wasn't pretty

still, 8 games seems a bit dramatic to base "move" stories on

crocked would in fairness account for uh call it stuttering form alright

which out of utd or rm would turn down angel de maria +£40m for gareth bale?

RM obv missing lil luka, but they also can't really defend the wings playing those 3 up top. Could get Bale to play more as a wide midfielder and tilt the central mids towards the left but does Bale really want to do that?

If I didn't loathe him so much I might feel a little sorry for how much stick he's been getting from the bernabeau. But seeing as I do I'm finding it p funny.

Face it Gareth, you're just a poor mans McManaman.

http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/wA6eBA0.png

ouch

could maybe do a job for us as cover for Jonny and Vinagre

155 appearances and 78 goals for Real is way more than I expected for someone who still gets treated as a flop despite literally winning them the Champions League a year ago.

Yeah i assume he goes out on the town wearing a Barca shirt and punching babies otherwise i don't really get it

with his left only obv