Gareth Bale

I’m a Spurs fan so naturally I’m pleased that Bale’s having such a good run of form. I’m also bemused. Bale’s always been a promising young player but I’ve always seen him more in the category of players disappointingly but conspicuously failing to consistently live up to their potential, along with Ashley Young, Theo Walcott and the mindboggling Jermaine Jenas. He’s never struck me as the kind of player like Giggs or Rooney who are clearly the real deal and can be expected to play fabulously unless they pull a Tiger Woods and become suddenly incompetent for reasons firmly external to the game.

Given this, it’s hard for me to view Bale’s purple patch the way others seem to, namely as his apotheosis from Paul Konchesky into Ronaldinho, a transformation destined to happen the moment Harry relieved him of his defensive duties. That seems to me about as sensible as hailing Nani as the new Cristiano Ronaldo every time he does a stepover. If six months from now Bale is the same towering mediocrity who didn’t win any of his first 24 league games for Spurs then nobody should be surprised.

That’s why I’m not pleased about Bale’s apparent committal of his future to the club. We’re not short of wingers and if we sold him in January we’d get a huge fee which we could spend on some decent defenders who weren’t always crocked. That’d be much more use than what I expect him to turn back into, and I think we can all agree he’s quite likely never to have a pricetag higher than the one he’s got at the moment. Then again, if he keeps playing the way he's playing now then he might singlehandedly win us the Champions' League. I'd like that.