Gareth Bale has been released since José Mourinho left the Tottenham Hotspurs bench on April 19, stopped by the irregular march of the London team. The footballer owned by Real Madrid was an express request from the Portuguese coach last summer, taking advantage of the fact that the white club did not find him an accommodation and that Zidane did not want him in the white squad. But the understanding between the two has not been the best and Bale has been relegated for a good part of the course to a secondary role that he did not like; Without Mou, Bale has taken a load off his shoulders and his performance proves it.
There are two Premier League games for Tottenham without Mourinho and with his successor, Ryan Mason, at the helm. In both cases, Bale started, played most of the minutes (158 of 180, 88%) and was the main asset of the Spurs in attack: he scored four goals. One against Southampton that meant the tie to one (Tottenham would end up winning 2-1) and three against Sheffield to put the win on track (4-0). Coincidence or not, the only game in which he did not start was in the FA Cup final against City and his team fell: He played 23 minutes in the second half and could not avoid a 1-0 defeat, thanks to a goal from Laporte.
Between injuries and an intermittent understanding with Mourinho, Bale has barely been able to play 1,471 minutes this season. In the Premier he has entered and left, while the Europa League was his competition until Tottenham was brought down by Dinamo Zagreb in the round of 16. And despite all the circumstances, his numbers show that he still has football in his boots: 14 goals and 3 assists accumulate, he scores a goal every 105 minutes and participates in one every 87 '.
After his hat-trick to Sheffield, he expressed what everyone already imagined: that the departure of Mourinho has freed him facing this final stretch of the season in which Tottenham fights to reach fourth place in the Premier. Right now he's fifth, five behind Chelsea with 12 to go. Complicated, but not impossible. “It is a fact that we are playing higher. We are closer to the goal, that allows us to score more goals. It is what we have worked on in recent weeks, “Bale explained, in an evident dart to the content style that Mourinho previously imposed.
“I feel good. I just needed to play a few games in a row and that's what's happening now. I'm happy and when I'm happy I usually play well. I feel like we have played up, pressed well, we had the ball and we played football well. You have to take advantage of opportunities when they arrive and I have had a few today. “Bale leaves little room for imagination: now (without Mou) he is happy and now his best moments of the course are coming. It also influences that special preparation that has led to the European Championship this summer, in which he intends to surprise again with Wales as he did in 2016 (they were semi-finalists).
Madrid celebrate every Bale goal
Real Madrid, meanwhile, is optimistic about this upturn in Bale's performance, looking ahead. The Welshman is on loan to Tottenham until the end of the course and both clubs share the large salary of the Briton (15 million net per season). Bale has a contract with Madrid until 2022 and the white entity already knows that it will be difficult to find him a team this summer, since his salary stops the attempts of any suitor. But the fact that the course ends well and makes a good Eurocup may lead Tottenham or others to be interested in a new loan. with which Madrid frees space from its salary bill, an indispensable requirement right now.
It is not ruled out that he will complete his last season playing for Real Madrid, although if Zidane is still on the Madrid bench, that option seems complicated. The distance between the two would prevent the course of a normal season. If the Marseillais decides not to continue in Madrid, it would depend on the taste of the new tenant of the bench, but that is an option that Madrid does not contemplate right now. Whether to play at the Bernabéu (or Valdebebas) or to do it with another shirt, Madrid celebrate every goal that this new unchained Bale scores.