Spurs’ “fearless” prospect was the next Bale, now he’s struggling in Turkey

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

Maybe the primary title 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 power of nature and left the aspect as their all-time prime 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 during the last decade has been second to none.

Nonetheless, relating to the Lilywhites’ most proficient participant of the twenty first century, we discover it arduous 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 look at.

Curiously, there was a degree after he left that the membership regarded like they’d discovered his inheritor, however sadly, that was not the case, and that participant is now struggling to make an influence in Turkish soccer.

Bale’s Spurs profession

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

Though the promising prospect was tipped for greatness early in his sensational profession, it took fairly a while for him to have a look at dwelling in North London, as a ligament harm 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 successful aspect till his twenty fifth look for the membership.

Infamously, the speak across the teenager being a bad-luck appeal for the membership was so widespread that Sir Alex Ferguson supposedly informed Harry Redknapp to take him out of the workforce, 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 choice.

This transfer led to the Cardiff-born dynamo turning into among the finest attackers in Europe, and whereas he managed to rack up a haul of 55 objectives 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 turned among the finest gamers on the planet.

For instance, in 44 appearances, totalling 3891 minutes, the Spurs phenomenon scored 26 objectives and supplied ten assists, which comes out to a median of a objective 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 unimaginable heights.

The Spurs star who was the subsequent Gareth Bale

When you’ve gamers as unbelievably proficient as Bale, it is not too unusual for promising kids coming by means of after them to be continuously 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 means of 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 workforce, which for a short while was simply what he did.

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

With the wind firmly at his again, the “fearless” attacker, as dubbed by former supervisor André Villas-Boas, scored one other objective in a recreation 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 inconceivable expectation to reside as much as, and over the next years, the Leytonstone-born ace would begin to grow to be much less and fewer vital to the workforce till he was lastly bought to Newcastle United for round £12m in January 2016, with a complete of simply 24 objective involvements for the membership in 93 appearances.

Over the subsequent 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 a substitute of taking the comparatively weaker Süper Lig by storm, the previous Lilywhites ace has critically struggled since leaving English soccer.

In all, he is scored simply twice and supplied two objectives in 22 appearances for his new membership, which comes out to a median of a objective 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 fantastic profession in arguably probably the most difficult league on the planet, and who is aware of, perhaps subsequent yr, with a marketing campaign below his belt, he’ll grow to be a star for Antalyaspor.