Berbatov claims ex-Spurs team-mate Bale's return is '100% NOT working'

Dimitar Berbatov claims former Tottenham team-mate Gareth Bale’s loan return to the club is ‘100% NOT working’ and that Spurs are being left with an ‘easy decision’ to send him back to Real Madrid in the summer

  • Dimitar Berbatov and Gareth Bale were Tottenham team-mates in 2007-08 
  • Berbatov believes Gareth Bale is not doing enough to impress Jose Mourinho
  • However, he claims Bale can still turn his form around and prove vital to Spurs 

Dimitar Berbatov believes Gareth Bale’s return to Tottenham Hotspur has been a failure and that his former side will not hesitate to send the Welshman back to Real Madrid.

To much fanfare, Bale returned on loan to Spurs for the season last summer – seven years after departing White Hart Lane for Madrid in a world record deal worth £86million.

However, he has struggled to make any impact in Jose Mourinho’s starting XI and has started just one Premier League game this season, while failing to complete 90 minutes in any competition due to a mixture of poor form, fitness and injuries. 

Gareth Bale has struggled to make any impact following his Tottenham Hotspur return

Manager Jose Mourinho has overlooked the Welshman on numerous occasions this season

Mourinho was recently overheard in a training ground video clip posted online complaining to his coaching staff, saying: ‘You want to stay here? Or go to Real Madrid and play no football?’

Berbatov though, who played with Bale at Spurs during the 2007-08 season, believes that the Welshman’s recent omissions can only be put down to not impressing Mourinho enough. 

‘I was expecting a lot of him coming to Spurs, to shake things up and for him, Son and Kane to make it a trio up front that can rival the Liverpool attacking trio, for example,’ Berbatov told Stats Perform.

‘For the moment it is 100 per cent not working.  Hopefully he can get back to 100 per cent and start playing. If not, in the end it is an easy decision – he can go back to Madrid.’ 

Former Spurs striker Dimitar Berbatov believes Bale’s return to the club has been a failure

Bale has largely had to settle for a place on the Tottenham bench this season

‘Whatever the reason [for his lack of games] Gareth Bale is injury free now is because he’s on the bench for the team.

‘But he’s not playing from the from the first minute so it means that obviously he’s not producing the right level of football Jose Mourinho wants from him, which is a shame because I like him a lot.’

Berbatov though believes that Bale can still play a major role in helping end Tottenham’s 13-year trophy drought.

The Bulgarian was part of the last Spurs side to win a trophy, scoring the equaliser in a 2-1 win over Chelsea to lift the League Cup at Wembley in 2008. 

Bale (second left) and Berbatov (second right) were Spurs team-mates between 2007 and 08

That season saw Tottenham lift their last trophy under Juande Ramos (front left) as Berbatov  (front right) celebrates the Carling Cup win alongside Robbie Keane

Spurs take on Manchester City in the final of the same competition in April and Berbatov claims it is vital Mourinho’s side come out on top at Wembley.

‘It doesn’t matter how [they get there] – the Premier League title, the cup, something – they need one so they can get that winning mentality going,’ he added.

‘Although they have a world champion in their team, the goalkeeper [Hugo Lloris], he should know how things are won – especially [having lifted] the World Cup.

‘So him, Jose Mourinho, Gareth Bale – who is coming from winning mentality – will run with it. Those three are very important, they can teach them in a way how to win things and then get that winning feeling.’




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