Mourinho echoes Zidane’s Gareth Bale comments to hint at ongoing problem

The true reasons behind Gareth Bale's failure to succeed at Tottenham this season may not be unearthed until his loan spell is over.

Plenty of excitement followed the Welshman's return to north London but he's been unable to rediscover the form he previously displayed at White Hart Lane.

In fact, Bale has barely been given the game time to do so.

Bale has started just two Premier League games so far in a season troubled with knee and calf problems. Even when fit the 31-year-old has usually been named on the bench.

Further game time has come in the Europa League group stages but all against lesser opposition.

For one reason or another Mourinho does not trust Bale against tough teams.

And the Spurs boss's recent comments on Bale's absences ring eerily similar.

After Bale was missing from Tottenham's 2-0 win over West Brom, Mourinho said: "So we played against West Bromwich on the Sunday and he didn't play.

"On Monday I was a little bit surprised by him wanting to have a scan because he was not comfortable with some muscular area.

"So he didn't train on Monday, and then on Tuesday he trained with the team, but I was informed that his desire would be to work with the sports science for a couple of days to strengthen that area.

"That's the reason why he's not here."

On at least two occasions at Real Madrid, Zidane has revealed how Bale requested to miss games

In 2019, when he was due to leave Spain for China, Zidane said: "The other day Gareth didn't play because he didn't want to.

"He said the club was trying to negotiate his departure and didn't want to play because of that."

Then, when Real Madrid were taking on Manchester City in the Champions League last year, Bale requested not to play again.

"It was a personal conversation I had with him," said Zidane.

"He preferred not to play. The rest remains between me and him but he said he didn’t want to play."

It seems Bale's habits of choosing which games he doesn't want to play in have followed him to Spurs.

Only a few days ago Mourinho hit out at Bale's Instagram post for contradicting reality.

The forward posted a picture of himself training with the caption "good session today". But Bale did not train because he's injured.

"I have to admit that his post created a need of being addressed. There was a contradiction between the post and the reality," said Mourinho.

"Since the beginning of the season, in relation to everything, I've tried to be very private and keep everything indoors but I felt that I needed to address the situation.

"Probably the post was not even his responsibility, but it was showing that training session was 'great' and 'I'm ready' which was totally wrong. So when questioned I had to give the reality of things.

"I repeat for the last time. He was not feeling good. He asked for a scan. He had a scan. The scan did not show an injury but his feelings were still there. But as coaches, medical people, we can never go against the player's feelings.

"So he was not ready for the game. It's as simple as that."

Despite Mourinho and Spurs' medics not finding an issue, Bale has and decided he doesn't want to play.

His time on the bench dominated headlines towards the end of his tenure at Real Madrid and it seems the same is still happening now at Spurs.

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