Bye Bye Bale

Sunday the 1st September brought to an end one saga which has dominated the summer's sporting headlines - Gareth Bale's transfer to Real Madrid.

Six years after the Welsh wizard moved to N17 from Southampton, where his talent as a left back was being noted as the reason for a £10 million transfer, he leaves White Hart Lane for more than eight times that amount. Obviously I am disappointed to see him leave; his form over the last two seasons has been incredible and his heroics in the Champions League a couple of years ago, mainly against Inter Milan, will live in the hearts of Spurs fans for a long time.

In the same vein, I don't think Bale will be hated for this transfer. Like Cunningham, Beckham and Ronaldo before him, they left English clubs to go to the Spanish royals and walk in the shoes of Eusebio, di Stefano, Puskas and Zidane, and I hope that moving from the medium sized pond to the enormous water of the Bernabau will benefit him.

The other reason Bale will not be hated is because his transfer fee has permitted the signing of seven new players (at the time of writing) and generally, his fee has covered that of Roberto Soldado, Eric Lamela and Etienne Capoue. Last season we were accused of being a one man team; this season we have almost filled the gaps that were so evident in our squad and look stronger than ever. Yes on the last day of Bale's employment as a Spurs player he saw us lose the North London derby, but would we have won with him? 

The final reason Bale will not be hated is because he chose to play abroad. Had he moved to Chelsea, Man City or Man United (my suspicion was the latter due to him being a natural replacement for Ryan Giggs) he would have faced the reception that Sheringham and Berbatov did, or the many departing Gooners to the Etihad. Instead he has gone to Spain, a move overall that is bad for the Premier League as it loses one of its leading lights, and for commercial reasons as Bale was one of the faces of BT Sport's promotions. 

I'll remember Bale fondly as the generation before me remembered Glenn Hoddle - a natural talent who saw a move to the continent as the way to improve himself and not as a sly upon Spurs. The 2012/13 season will be his Spurs epitaph and it will be a strong one, ending with Footballer of Year of the awards from all.

In the words of Freddie Mercury, Gareth Bale "You made us laugh, you made us cry, you made us feel like we could fly."