Spurs’ “fearless” prospect was the following Bale, now he is struggling in Turkey

Relating to Tottenham Hotspur’s modern-day greats, there are fairly just a few gamers to select from.

Maybe the primary identify that may come to thoughts for most individuals is Harry Kane, as whereas he wasn’t capable of win something in North London, he was a goalscoring pressure of nature and left the facet as their all-time high scorer and a Premier League legend.

The Englishman’s right-hand man, Son Heung-min, is one other participant that must be talked about on this dialog, as whereas time is beginning to meet up with him this season, his consistency over the past decade has been second to none.

Nevertheless, in relation to the Lilywhites’ most proficient participant of the twenty first century, we discover it onerous to look previous the world-class Gareth Bale, as whereas he did not have the longevity of the opposite two, he was merely sensational to observe.

Apparently, there was some extent after he left that the membership seemed like that they had discovered his inheritor, however sadly, that was not the case, and that participant is now struggling to make an affect in Turkish soccer.

Bale’s Spurs profession

In Might 2007, Tottenham accomplished the £10m signing of an extremely thrilling and sought-after 17-year-old full-back from Southampton known as Bale.

Though the promising prospect was tipped for greatness early in his sensational profession, it took fairly a while for him to take a look at house in North London, as a ligament damage stored him out of motion for the second half of his first season.

Then, when he was again to full health, he wasn’t on the profitable facet till his twenty fifth look for the membership.

Infamously, the speak across the teenager being a bad-luck attraction for the membership was so widespread that Sir Alex Ferguson supposedly instructed Harry Redknapp to take him out of the group, which was recommendation that the Englishman fortunately ignored.

It was within the 09/10 season that Redknapp moved the previous Saints gem additional up the pitch to left-midfield and left-wing positions, which proved to be a game-changing resolution.

This transfer led to the Cardiff-born dynamo turning into the most effective attackers in Europe, and whereas he managed to rack up a haul of 55 targets and 50 assists in 203 appearances earlier than securing his £85m transfer to Actual Madrid, it was within the 12/13 marketing campaign that he grew to become the most effective gamers on the planet.

For instance, in 44 appearances, totalling 3891 minutes, the Spurs phenomenon scored 26 targets and offered ten assists, which comes out to a mean of a aim involvement each 1.22 video games, or each 108.08 minutes – speak about world-class.

So, when one of many membership’s up-and-coming kids was in comparison with Bale a few years later, there was an comprehensible pleasure, though the participant in query might by no means get anyplace near the Welshman’s unbelievable heights.

The Spurs star who was the following Gareth Bale

When you’ve gamers as unbelievably proficient as Bale, it is not too unusual for promising kids coming by after them to be always in comparison with and dubbed the ‘subsequent’ model of stated superstars, and that was what occurred with Andros Townsend.

The previous Spurs ace got here up by the membership’s academy system and, following a number of loans between 2009 and 2013, was given an opportunity to interrupt into and assert himself within the first group, which for a short time was simply what he did.

For instance, in October 2013, following a promising begin to his first correct marketing campaign within the first group, then-England supervisor Roy Hodgson handed the younger winger his debut for the nationwide group, throughout which he grabbed the headlines with a superb long-range strike.

With the wind firmly at his again, the “fearless” attacker, as dubbed by former supervisor André Villas-Boas, scored one other aim in a sport in opposition to Aston Villa only a week later, after which Jan Vertonghen boldly proclaimed that the then-22-year-old might “be our new Gareth Bale.”

Whereas undoubtedly meant to encourage the teenager, all this did was create an unimaginable expectation to reside as much as, and over the next years, the Leytonstone-born ace would begin to develop into much less and fewer necessary to the group till he was lastly offered to Newcastle United for round £12m in January 2016, with a complete of simply 24 aim involvements for the membership in 93 appearances.

Over the following eight years, the 33-year-old made 13 appearances for the Toon, 185 for Crystal Palace, 27 for Everton after which 32 for Luton City between October 2023 and August 2024.

It was final summer time that the previous England worldwide made the shock transfer to Turkish outfit Antalyaspor.

Sadly, as an alternative of taking the comparatively weaker Süper Lig by storm, the previous Lilywhites ace has severely struggled since leaving English soccer.

In all, he is scored simply twice and offered two targets in 22 appearances for his new membership, which comes out to a mean of a aim involvement each 5.5 video games and is not nice for somebody who was within the Premier League simply final season.

Finally, with all that stated, whereas Townsend was by no means going to have the ability to reside as much as the tag given to him by Vertonghen all these years in the past, he did have a terrific profession in arguably essentially the most difficult league on the earth, and who is aware of, possibly subsequent 12 months, with a marketing campaign underneath his belt, he’ll develop into a star for Antalyaspor.