Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jamie Redknapp has discussed Gareth Bale’s game time for Spurs following the north London derby.
During the summer transfer window, Jose Mourinho’s outfit sealed the return of the Welsh winger on a season-long loan from La Liga club Real Madrid (per BBC).
Since he returned to Tottenham, Bale has started just one Premier League match for Spurs and come off the bench in only two other league games (per WhoScored).
In the 2-0 victory against Arsenal, the 31-year-old attacker did not make it off the bench for Spurs (as per Transfermarkt).
This led Redknapp to discuss the winger’s game time under Mourinho during Sky Sports’ coverage of the match, which was later shared on The Sky Sports Football Podcast.
He said: “[Mourinho] probably looks at him in training and thinks, ‘You’re not going to be the player that’s going to run back like [Steven] Bergwijn does.’
“Look, there will come a time for Gareth Bale, and it might be the game when you need to win – and I’m almost undermining what an incredible player [he is], one of the best players I’ve seen live – but right now, Jose thinks, ‘He’s not the player that I need in this team.’ This team has to work to a man and Gareth might just upset that balance and not quite do those hard yards.
“That feels a bit unfair on him, because he’s probably watching now thinking, ‘How am I going to get into this team? And if I want to get in, the only way I can do it is by working hard and showing [that] in training and when I come on, I make an impact.’
“Make no mistake, Gareth Bale will have a role and he will score a couple of wonderful goals here before the end of the season, but I can’t imagine he’s too happy about it.”
TIF Thoughts on what Jamie Redknapp said about Gareth Bale’s game time…
As can be seen in what the pundit had to say, he believes that while Bale’s time will come for Spurs, Redknapp does not believe the player will be happy with his current game time.
Should Gareth Bale be getting more game time for Spurs?
No, he needs to earn it
Yes, he should be playing
The former midfielder also noted that when Bale comes on for Spurs, he needs to make an impact to earn more minutes for Tottenham, however, he has struggled to do so thus far.
While the winger has scored one goal in his three league appearances for the club, he has delivered a fairly uninspiring 6.62/10 average rating (per WhoScored).
That has made Bale the 10th-worst performer to feature for Mourinho’s side in the league so far this term, so it is clear that the attacker needs to be performing better when given the opportunity.