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Report shares what Gareth Bale has been like in Spurs training with Jose Mourinho not selecting him
Although Tottenham Hotspur loanee Gareth Bale is struggling for game time under Jose Mourinho, he remains happy at the club and is “jovial” in training, according to .
The 31-year-old rejoined Tottenham on a season-long loan deal from Real Madrid in mid-September, a move which saw the media spotlight shine brightly on North London.
Bale wasn’t thrown straight into action as he was recovering from a knee injury on Wales duty prior to his switch to Tottenham, as well as being short of match fitness.
Several months on, however, and he’s still struggling for game time, with the bulk of his minutes coming in the Europa League, and just four appearances – one start – in the Premier League.
Mourinho has largely opted to play the likes of Lucas Moura, Carlos Vinicius and Steven Bergwijn in attack, with Bale largely confined to the bench.
Despite this, however, claims that the Bernabeu loanee is loving life in North London, with plenty of friends and “precisely the same character as the youngster who made his name at the club a decade ago: funny, jovial, relaxed, youthful, plenty of jokes, schoolboy pranks, no airs and graces.”
“Last summer, before signing Bale, Spurs signed Joe Hart on a free transfer from Burnley, in part to be a vocal leader around the club.
“And one dressing room source says that Bale has effectively shared that role with the former England goalkeeper, encouraging people around the training ground, contributing to the positive feeling at Tottenham, injecting some big-name character into the place where it had been lacking in the past.”
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Admittedly, Bale has missed out on several Spurs games due to injury, sadly something that has affected him a lot in the past few years – he was out for a spell after being forced off against Stoke in the League Cup.
However, he did manage to get 25 minutes under his belt against Marine in the FA Cup third round, as such, you’d have thought he’d have been called upon in the following games, particularly against Fulham when Spurs needed a spark.
That said, it may just be a case of Mourinho feeling he can rely on his other attackers at this moment in time due to Bale’s injury issues, so hopefully in the coming weeks the manager will give him more game time – after all, Tanguy Ndombele had to bide his time and is now doing superbly.